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THE    METROPOLITAN     MUSEUM 

OF    ART 


J'JL  24  iy24 


THE 

FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

CELEBRATION 

MDCCCLXX 

TO 

MCMXX 


I 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/fiftietlianniversOOmetrricli 


THE 

FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

CELEBRATION 


"  >*   •  • . 


THE    METROPOLITAN     MUSEUM 

OF    ART 

THE 

FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

CELEBRATION 

MDCCCLXX     —      MCMXX 


NEW      YORK 
M    C    M    X   X   I 


COPYRIGHT,   1 92 1,    BY 

THE   METROPOLITAN   MUSEUM 

OF   ART 


KXCHAHOK 


OFFICERS  AND  TRUSTEES  OF 

THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

MCMXX 

Robert  W.  de  Forest,  President 
Elihu  Root,  First  Vice-President 
Henry  Walters,  Second  Vice-President 
Howard  Mansfield,  Treasurer 
Henry  W.  Kent,  Secretary 

Edward  D.  Adams 
George  F.  Baker 
George  Blumenthal 
Daniel  C.  French 


Charles  W.  Gould 
R.  T.  Haines  Halsey 
Edward  S.  Harkness 
Arthur  Curtiss  James 


Francis  C.  Jones 
Lewis  Cass  Ledyard 
V.  EvERiT  Macy 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan 
Charles  D.  Norton 
William  Church  Osborn 
Samuel  T.  Peters 
Henry  S.  Pritchett 


The  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York 

The  Comptroller  of  the  City  of  New  York 

The  President  of  the  Department  of  Parks 

The  President  of  the  National  Academy  of  Design 

SPECIAL  COMMITTEE 

ON  ARRANGEMENTS 
The  President  Samuel  T.  Peters 

The  First  Vice-President         Edward  Robinson,  Director 
The  Second  Vice-President      Henry  W.  Kent,  Secretary 


r;47'):?ri 


THE  STAFF 

Edward  Robinson,  Director 
Joseph  Breck,  Assistant  Director 
Elial  T.  Foote,  Assistant  Treasurer 
Henry  F.  Davidson,  Registrar 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PAINTINGS 

George  H.  Story,  Curator  Emeritus 
Bryson  Burroughs,  Curator 

DEPARTMENT  OF  CLASSICAL  ART 

Edward  Robinson,  Curator 

GiSELA  M.  A.  RicHTER,  Assistant  Curator 

DEPARTMENT  OF  EGYPTIAN  ART 

Albert  M.  Lythgoe,  Curator 

Albert  C.  Mace  )     a    •  r- 

TT  T-   TIT  \    Assistant  Curators 

Herbert  E.  Winlock  ) 

DEPARTMENT  OF  DECORATIVE  ARTS 

Joseph  Breck,  Curator 

Frances  Morris  ^ 

Russell  A.  Plimpton       .     .  ^ 

^.  r.    T.  ?  Assistant  Curators 

Meyric  R.  Rogers         i 

Charles  O.  Cornelius  i 

Theodore  Y.  Hobby,  Keeper,  Benjamin  Altman  Collection 
Arthur  J.  Boston,  Assistant  Keeper,  Benjamin  Altman  Collection 

DEPARTMENT  OF  ARMS  AND  ARMOR 
Bashford  Dean,  Curator 

DEPARTMENT  OF  FAR  EASTERN  ART 
S.  C.  Bosch  Reitz,  Curator 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PRINTS 
William  M.  Ivins,  Jr.,  Curator 

vi 


THE  LIBRARY 
William  Clifford,  Librarian 
Alice  L.  Felton,  Assistant  in  Charge  of  Photographs 

Edith  R.  Abbot  \ 

Anna  Curtis  Chandler  (  -, 

y-,  ^   ^  }  Instructors 

Llise  r.  Carey  ( 

Alice  T.  Coseo  ) 

Richard  F.  Bach,  Associate  in  Industrial  Arts 

Winifred  E.  Howe  )  ^  i  a     • 

T»  'T'  XT  c  vjeneral  Assistants 

Robert  1.  Nichol  ) 

Margaret  A.  Gash,  Assistant  in  Charge  of  Cataloguing 

Juliet  W.  Robinson,  Assistant  in  Charge  of  Information  Desk 

Bessie  D.  Davis,  Assistant  in  Charge  of  Lending  Collection 

Conrad  Hewitt,  Superintendent  of  the  Building 


vn 


THE   FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 
CELEBRATION 

TO  COMMEMORATE  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  found- 
ing of  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  on  April  13,  1870, 
the  Board  of  Trustees,  at  a  meeting  held  November  25, 1919, 
appointed  a  Committee  on  Arrangements,  and  at  their  December 
meeting,  the  Trustees  authorized  the  erection  of  two  tablets  in 
memory  of  the  Founders  and  of  the  Benefactors  of  the  Museum. 

The  events  arranged  by  the  Committee  were  a  loan  exhibition 
of  objects  of  art  to  be  displayed  with  the  collections  in  the  various 
departments;  an  exhibition  of  the  memorabilia  connected  with  the 
history  of  the  development  of  the  Museum,  together  with  portraits 
of  all  the  Founders,  Trustees,  and  Benefactors;  formal  exercises  with 
addresses  by  representatives  of  the  State  of  New  York,  City  of  New 
York,  and  other  museums  of  art;  the  unveiling  of  the  memorial 
tablets;  and  a  dinner  given  by  the  Trustees  in  honor  of  the  distin- 
guished representatives  at  the  exercises  and  the  lenders  to  the  exhi- 
bition. 

The  following  paragraphs  are  devoted  to  these  events  in  the 
order  of  their  occurrence. 

THE  LOAN  EXHIBITION 

The  following  letter  was  sent  to  the  well-known  collectors  of 
objects  of  art  in  New  York,  in  pursuance  of  the  decision  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Arrangements,  to  ask  contributions  to  what  proved  to 
be  the  most  important  exhibition  of  its  kind  ever  held  in  the  Museum: 

Sir: 

The  spring  of  1920  marks  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Museum,  and  its  Trustees  propose  to  make  an 
especial  effort  to  celebrate  this  event  in  a  manner  which  shall 


'  "     "  *  THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

not  only  be  worthy  of  the  occasion,  but  shall  emphasize  the 
importance  the  Museum  has  attained  as  a  national  institution 
in  the  first  fifty  years  of  its  growth,  and  shall  also  show  the 
interest  which  the  people  of  New  York  take  in  its  progress  and 
welfare. 

As  one  feature  of  this  celebration  it  is  proposed  to  make  an 
exhibition  in  which  every  department  of  the  Museum  shall  have 
its  due  share;  and  it  is  desired  to  do  this,  first,  by  displaying  our 
own  collections  at  their  best,  and  second,  by  supplementing  these 
with  works  from  private  collections  in  and  about  New  York, 
where  our  material  can  be  enriched  by  such  loans.  Objects 
thus  lent  would  not  be  segregated  into  a  loan  exhibition  by  them- 
selves, but  would  be  placed  in  the  galleries  of  the  several  de- 
partments together  with  the  Museum's  objects  of  a  kindred 
nature,  and  would  be  properly  labeled  with  the  lender's  name. 

If  this  project  can  be  successfully  carried  out,  it  will  not  only 
be  a  testimony  to  visitors  of  the  friendly  relations  that  exist 
between  the  Museum  and  the  private  collectors  of  the  city,  and 
the  readiness  of  the  latter  to  join  in  the  Museum's  celebration, 
but  will  result  in  an  exhibition  which  will  be  memorable  for 
many  years. 

The  Committee  hopes,  therefore,  that  its  plan  for  this  part 
of  the  celebration  will  receive  the  sympathy  and  cooperation  of 
those  to  whom  a  request  is  made  for  the  loan  of  works  of  art 
which  will  contribute  towards  making  the  exhibition  a  success. 
It  is  proposed  to  open  the  exhibition  about  the  first  of  May,  and 
to  have  it  continue  through  the  summer  so  far  as  the  arrange- 
ment suits  the  convenience  of  the  lenders.  This  would  enable 
the  large  number  of  people  from  every  part  of  the  country  who 
pass  through  New  York  during  the  summer  to  see  it. 

Special  Committee  on  the  Celebration 
OF  THE  Museum's  Fiftieth  Anniversary. 

The  appeal  resulted  in  the  receipt  of  1,154  objects,  which  may  be 
classified  according  to  the  Departments  of  the  Museum  as  follows: 
Department  of  Egyptian  Art  107  Department  of  Arms  and  Armor  79 
Department  of  Classical  Art     7  Department  of  Prints  129 

Department  of  Paintings        125  Department  of  Oriental  Art         173 
Department  of  Decorative  Arts  534 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

The  names  of  those  who  so  generously  responded  to  this  appeal 


are: 


COPLEY  AMORY,  JR. 

JULES  S.  B-ACHE 

EMIL  BAERWALD 

GEORGE  F,  BAKER 

H.  H.  BENEDICT 

S.  READING  BERTRON 

HARRY  PAYNE  BINGHAM 

MRS.  GEORGE  T,  BLISS 

MISS  LIZZIE  P.  BLISS 

MRS.  ALBERT  BLUM 

MR.  &  MRS.  GEORGE  BLUMENTHAL 

MISS  A.  MILES  CARPENTER 
LEWIS  L.  CLARKE 
WILLIAM  H.  CLARKE 
HON.  A.  T.  CLEARWATER 
MRS.  GEORGE  H.  CLEMENTS 
OGDEN  CODMAN 
MRS.  DE  WITT  CLINTON  COHEN 
MRS.  JOSEPH  MCKEE  COOK 
MRS.  W.  BAYARD  CUTTING 

GEORGE  W.  DAVISON 

HENRY  P.  DAVISON 

MR.  &  MRS.  ROBERT  W.  DE  FOREST 

S.  K.  DE  FOREST 

S.  W.  DEJONGE 

MRS.  W.  P.  DOUGLAS 

MICHAEL  DREICER 

MR.  &.  MRS.  GODDARD  DU  BOIS 

MISS  MARGARET  E.  DUNCAN 

CHARLES  B.  EDDY 

MRS.  HARRIS  FAHNESTOCK 


WILLIAM  B.  OSGOOD  FIELD 
HARRY  HARKNESS  FLAGLER 
MICHAEL  FRIEDSAM 

MRS.  RICHARD  GAMBRILL,  II 

MRS.  FRANCIS  P.  GARVAN 

HENRY  GOLDMAN 

GEORGE  J.  GOULD 

RICHARD  C.  GREENLEAF 

MR.  &  MRS.  F.  GRAY  GRISWOLD 

MISS  MARIAN  HAGUE 

R.  T.  HAINES  HALSEY 

CARL  W.  HAMILTON 

J.  HORACE  HARDING 

EDWARD  S.  HARKNESS 

ROBERT  HARTSHORNE 

MRS.  RUFUS  HATCH 

MRS.  H.  O.  HAVEMEYER 

SUMNER  HEALEY 

THE  MISSES  HEWITT 

MRS.  CHARLES  B.  HILLHOUSE 

FISHER  HOWE 

MRS.  HENRY  E.  HUNTINGTON 

PIERRE  JAY 
ALPHONSE  JONGERS 

MR,  &  MRS.  OTTO  H.  KAHN 
MRS.  JOHN  CLAPPERTON  KERR 
C.  O.  KIENBUSCH 

MRS.  J.  P.  D.  LANIER 
GEORGE  LEARY,  JR. 
ARTHUR  LEHMAN 
ADOLPH  LEWISOHN 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 


EDWARD  H.  LITCHFIELD 

LUKE  VINCENT  LOCKWOOD 

HOWARD  MANSFIELD 

MRS.  HARRY  MARKOE 

MISS  MINNIE  I.  MEACHAM 

MR.  &  MRS.  EUGENE  MEYER,  JR. 

MRS.  ROBERT  B.  MINTURN 

MRS.  W.  H.  MOORE 

MR.  &  MRS.  J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN 

THEODORE  OFFERMAN 
WILLIAM  CHURCH  OSBORN 


JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER,  JR. 
THOMAS  FORTUNE  RYAN 

PAUL  J.  SACHS 

MRS.  WILLIAM  SALOMON 

MRS.  HERBERT  L.  SATTERXEE 

MORTIMER  L.  SCHIFF 

CHARLES  M.  SCHWAB 

MRS.  GINO  SPERANZA 

GEORGE  C.  STONE 

MRS.    F.    F.    THOMPSON 


HENRY  MCM.  PAINTER 

MRS.  CLARENCE  C.  PELL 

MR.  &  MRS.  MARSDEN  J.  PERRY 

SAMUEL  T.  PETERS 

CHARLES  A.  PLATT 

DAN  FELLOWS  PLATT 

FREDERIC  B.  PRATT 

JOHN  Q.UINN 

MR.  &  MRS.  JOHNSTON  L.  REDMOND 
PHILIP  RHINELANDER,  2D 


W.  K.  VANDERBILT 

HENRY  WALTERS 

FELIX  M.  WARBURG 

MRS.  F.  E.  WEBB 

ALEXANDER  MCMILLAN  WELCH 

MRS.  GEORGE  T.  WHELAN 
WILLIAM  AUGUSTUS  WHITE 
HARRY  PAYNE  WHITNEY 

JOHN  N.  WILLYS 
ORME  WILSON,  JR. 
MRS.  CHARLES  A.  WIMPFHEIMER 
GRENVILLE  L.  WINTHROP 


The  exhibition  was  opened  with  a  private  view  for  the  members 
of  the  Museum  and  their  friends,  and  a  number  of  distinguished 
guests  including  the  lenders,  on  Friday  afternoon.  May  7,  from  two 
until  six  o'clock. 


DECORATIONS 

The  great  hall  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  entrance  was  decorated  for 
the  opening  of  the  Loan  Exhibition  with  garlands,  wreaths,  and  the 
coats  of  arms  or  emblems  of  the  State,  City,  and  various  countries 
represented  in  the  Museum  collections,  by  the  Siedle  Studios  after 
designs  by  Messrs.  McKim,  Mead  &  White,  the  architects  of  the  build- 

4 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

ing.     The  emblematic  figures  within  the  garlands  were  the  work  of 
Ezra  Winter, 

MEMORABILIA 

The  collection  of  memorabilia  illustrating  graphically  the  growth 
of  the  Museum,  and  embracing  all  of  the  printed  notices,  documents, 
charts,  plans,  and  photographs,  together  with  photographs  of  the 
Founders,  Trustees,  and  Benefactors,  was  displayed  in  the  Room  of 
Recent  Accessions,  and  a  group  of  similar  material  showing  the  devel- 
opment of  the  educational  work  was  shown  in  Class  Room  B. 

MEMORIAL  TABLETS 

The  tablets  of  Botticino  marble  commemorative  of  the  Founders 
of  the  Museum  and  of  its  Benefactors,  cut  by  the  Traitel  Marble 
Company,  after  designs  by  Messrs.  McKim,  Mead  &  White,  are  set 
into  the  wall,  one  on  either  side,  at  the  foot  of  the  main  staircase 
leading  from  the  Fifth  Avenue  entrance.  The  inscriptions  read  as 
follows : 

THE  FOUNDERS  OF 

THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

APRIL  13,  MDCCCLXX 


JOHN   TAYLOR   JOHNSTON 
WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT 
JOHN  A.  DIX 
GEORGE  W.  CURTIS 
WILLIAM  H.  ASPINWALL 
CHRISTIAN  E.  DETMOLD 
ANDREW  H.  GREEN 
WILLIAM  J.  HOPPIN 
JOHN  F.  KENSETT 
EDWIN  D.  MORGAN 
HOWARD  POTTER 
HENRY  G.  STEBBINS 
WILLIAM  T.  BLODGETT 
SAMUEL  L.  M.  BARLOW 


GEORGE    F.    COMFORT 
JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE 
FREDERIC  E.  CHURCH 
ROBERT  GORDON 
RICHARD  M.  HUNT 
ROBERT  HOE,  JR. 
EASTMAN  JOHNSON 
FREDERICK  LAW  OLMSTED 
GEORGE  P.  PUTNAM 
LUCIUS  TUCKERMAN 
JOHN  Q.UINCY  ADAMS  WARD 
SAMUEL  G.  WARD 
THEODORE  WESTON 
RUSSELL  STURGIS,  JR. 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

BENEFACTORS  OF  THE  MUSEUM 
DURING  THE  FIRST  HALF  CENTURY  OF  STRUGGLE 

AND  GROWTH 
MDCCCLXX-MDCCCCXX 


JOHN  TAYLOR  JOHNSTON 
WILLIAM  TILDEN  BLODGETT 
HENRY  GURDON  MARQUAND 
STEPHEN  WHITNEY  PHOENIX 
GIDEON  F.  T.  REED 
LEVI  HALE  WILLARD 
WILLIAM  H.  HUNTINGTON 
WILLIAM  H.  VANDERBILT 
CATHARINE  LORILLARD  WOLFE 
CORNELIUS  VANDERBILT 
GEORGE  I.  SENEY 
JUNIUS  S.  MORGAN 
HENRY  HILTON 
JOHN  JACOB  ASTOR 
MARY  E.  BROWN 
J.PIERPONT  MORGAN 
HEBER  R.  BISHOP 
ELIZABETH  U.  COLES 
AMELIA  B.  LAZARUS 
GEORGE  A.  HEARN 
AUGUSTUS  VAN  HORNE  ELLIS 
J.  HENRY  SMITH 
JACOB  S.  ROGERS 
MARY  CLARK  THOMPSON 
DARIUS  OGDEN  MILLS 
EDWARD  DEAN  ADAMS 
MARGARET  OLIVIA  SAGE 


FREDERICK  C.  HEWITT 
JOHN  STEWART  KENNEDY 
JOSEPH  PULITZER 
FRANCIS  L,  LELAND 
ALEXANDER  SMITH  COCHRAN 
BENJAMIN  ALTMAN 
WILLIAM  HENRY  RIGGS 
EDWARD  S.  HARKNESS 
JOHN  LAMBERT  CADWALADER 
BENJAMIN  P.  DAVIS 
LILLIAN  STOKES  GILLESPIE 
JAMES  B.  HAMMOND 
MARIA  DE  WITT  JESUP 
J.  PIERPONT  MORGAN,  JR. 
HENRY  WALTERS 
GEORGE  F.  BAKER 
HARRIS  BRISBANE  DICK 
ISAAC  D.  FLETCHER 
JESSIE  GILLENDER 
JOHN  HOGE 
EDWARD  C.  MOORE 
OLIVER  H.  PAYNE 
CHARLOTTE  M.  TYTUS 
HELEN  COSSITT  JUILLIARD 
JACQUES  SELIGMANN 
ROBERT  W.  DE  FOREST 
EMILY  JOHNSTON  DE  FOREST 


COMMEMORATIVE  EXERCISES 

The  formal  exercises  were  held  in  the  Lecture  Hall  on  Tuesday, 
May  1 8,  at  4  p.  m.,  the  President  of  the  Museum,  Robert  W.  de 
Forest,  in  the  Chair. 

6 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

Invitations  were  sent  to  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the  Commissioner  of  Parks, 
presidents  and  directors  of  art  museums,  presidents  and  secretaries 
of  art  societies,  presidents  of  colleges  in  New  York  City,  the  President 
of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  the  President  and  Super- 
intendents of  the  Department  of  Education,  New  York  City,  dele- 
gates to  the  Convention  of  the  American  Federation  of  Arts,  the  mem- 
bers and  staff  of  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  and  lenders  to 
the  Anniversary  Exhibition. 

The  program  of  the  exercises  in  the  Lecture  Hall  was  as  follows: 

ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 
MUSIC:       MINUET  AND  FINALE 

QUARTETTE,    OP.    76,    NO.    2,    HAYDN 

ADDRESS  BY  FRANCIS  D.  GALLATIN 

COMMISSIONER  OF  PARKS 

ADDRESS  BY  JOHN  H.  FINLEY 

PRESIDENT    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF   THE    STATE    OF    NEW 
YORK 

ADDRESS  BY  MORRIS  GRAY 

PRESIDENT     OF    THE     MUSEUM     OF     FINE     ARTS,     BOSTON, 
MASSACHUSETTS 

MUSIC:     WALTZ,  OP.  21,  REBIKOFF 
ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  L.  HUTCHINSON 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ART  INSTITUTE,  CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 

ADDRESS  BY  ROBERT  W.  DE  FOREST 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

MUSIC:       WALTZES,  OP.  39,  BRAHMS 

Upon  the  completion  of  these  exercises,  the  audience  adjourned  to 
the  foot  of  the  main  staircase,  where  at  the  unveiling  of  the  tablets 

7 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

commemorative  of  the  Founders  and  the  Benefactors  of  the  Museum 
the  following  program  was  carried  out: 

ADDRESS  BY  ELIHU  ROOT 

FIRST   VICE-PRESIDENT,   THE    METROPOLITAN    MUSEUM    OF 
ART 

UNVEILING  OF  THE  TABLETS 
MUSIC:       ANDANTE  CANTABILE 

QUARTETTE,  OP.   11,  TSCHAIKOVSKY 

THE  DINNER 

The  dinner,  given  by  the  Trustees,  was  held  at  the  University 
Club,  on  Tuesday  evening.  May  i8,  at  eight  o'clock. 
The  guests  present  were: 

PRESIDENTS  OF  MUSEUMS 


Frank  L.  Babbott 
Ralph  H.  Booth 
C.  T.  Crocker 
Francis  H.  Dewey 
Morris  Gray 

McDoUGALL   HaWKES 

Charles  L.  Hutchinson 
Henry  Fairfield  Osborn 
Frederic  B.  Pratt 
John  A.  Weekes 


Brooklyn 

Detroit 

San  Francisco 

Worcester 

Boston 

New  York 

Chicago 

New  York 

Brooklyn 

New  York 


DIRECTORS  OF  MUSEUMS 


John  W.  Beatty 
H.  H.  Brown 
Clyde  H.  Burroughs 
Edward  W.  Forbes 
William  Henry  Fox 


Pittsburgh 

Indianapolis 

Detroit 

Cambridge 

Brooklyn 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

J.  H.  Gest  Cincinnati 

George  B,  Gordon  Philadelphia 

Edgar  L.  Hewett  Santa  Fe 

Robert  Allen  Holland  St.  Louis 

William  H.  Holmes  Washington 

J.  NiLSEN  Laurvik  San  Francisco 

C.  Powell  Minnigerode  Washington 

Charles  R.  Richards  New  York 

L.  Earle  Rowe  Providence 

George  W.  Stevens  Toledo 

F.  Allen  Whiting  Cleveland 

Raymond  Wyer  Worcester 

Herbert  Adams 

Elmer  E.  Brown,  Chancellor,  New  York  University 

Michael  Dreicer 

Michael  Friedsam 

John  H.  Finley,  Pres.,  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Henry  Goldman 

A.  Augustus  Healy 

Adolph  Lewisohn 

Thomas  F.  Ryan 

Mortimer  L.  Schiff 

Felix  M.  Warburg 

Grenville  L.  Winthrop 

■      TRUSTEES,  OFFICERS,  AND  STAFF  OF 
THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

Robert  W.  de  Forest 

Edward  D.  Adams 

Edwin  H.  Blashfield,  Ex-officio 

George  Blumenthal 

Charles  L.  Craig,  Ex-officio 

Daniel  C.  French 

Francis  D.  Gallatin,  Ex-officio 

Charles  W.  Gould 

R.  T.  Haines  Halsey 

Francis  C.  Jones 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

Howard  Mansfield 

Charles  D.  Norton 

Samuel  T.  Peters 

Henry  S.  Pritchett  • 

Elihu  Root 

Edward  Robinson 
Henry  W.  Kent 
Joseph  Breck 

There  were  no  formal  speeches,  but  an  address  of  congratulation 
was  presented  by  the  President  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  Professor  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn,  reading  as  follows: 

the  trustees  of 
the  american  museum  of  natural  history 

desire    TO    EXTEND   TO    THEIR    FELLOW   TRUSTEES 

OF   THE 

METROPOLITAN    MUSEUM    OF   ART 

THEIR    CORDIAL   AND    FRATERNAL    FELICITATIONS 

ON   THE    OCCASION    OF   THE 

GOLDEN   JUBILEE 

OF   THE 

METROPOLITAN   MUSEUM    OF   ART 

THIS  MARKS  THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE  FIRST  FIFTY 
YEARS  OF  IDEALISM  IN  DIRECTION  AND  OF  UNEX- 
AMPLED GENEROSITY  IN  CONTRIBUTION  WHICH  IN  A 
BRIEF  PERIOD  OF  HALF  A  CENTURY  HAS  PLACED  OUR 
SISTER  INSTITUTION  THE  FOREMOST  IN  AMERICA 
AND  AMONG  THE  FOREMOST  IN  THE  WORLD 

WE  LOOK  FORWARD  WITH  CONFIDENCE  TO  THE  NEW 
HALF  CENTURY  OF  ADVANCE  IN  ALL  THAT  ART  AND 
BEAUTY  CAN  MEAN  IN  THEIR  INFLUENCE  ON  AMER- 
ICAN   LIFE,    CULTURE,    AND    CIVILIZATION 

lO 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 


PRIZE  CONTEST  IN  THE  HIGH  SCHOOLS 

In  connection  with  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  Celebration,  the 
Trustees  of  the  Museum,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  President,  Robert 
W.  de  Forest,  offered  to  each  High  School  in  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx 
a  prize  for  the  best  composition  written  by  a  pupil  of  the  school  on 
the  topic  "A  Visit  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum"  or  some  nearly 
related  subject.  The  prizes  consisted  of  framed  enlargements  from 
photographs  of  paintings  and  sculpture  in  the  Museum  collection  and 
became  the  property  of  the  respective  schools.  An  additional  prize, 
also  a  framed  photograph,  was  awarded  to  the  writer  of  the  composi- 
tion adjudged  best  among  the  prize-winning  compositions,  for  his 
own  possession. 

On  November  3,  1920,  the  prizes  were  awarded  at  the  Washington 
Irving  High  School  by  Robert  W.  de  Forest  and  Gustave  Strauben- 
miiller.  Associate  Superintendent  of  Schools.  The  winners  in  the 
eight  schools  entering  into  the  contest  were  as  follows: 

Lillian  Bronstein,  Julia  Richmond  High  School 
Florence  Hauser,  Washington  Irving  High  School 
Helen  Gundersheemer,  Theodore  Roosevelt  High  School 
Jack  Albert  Walker,  DeWitt  Clinton  High  School 
Florence  Buell,  Wadleigh  High  School 
George  Henry  Hornstein,  Morris  High  School 
Lillian  Litzenburger,  George  Washington  High  School 
Eleanor  Mann,  Evander  Childs  High  School 

To  Eleanor  Mann,  winner  of  the  prize  for  the  Evander  Childs  High 
School,  was  awarded  the  special  prize  for  the  best  composition  of  all 
those  receiving  prizes. 


II 


3> 


ADDRESS  BY  FRANCIS  D.  GALLATIN . 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

It  has  been  well  said — as  it  has  been  often  said — that  stone  walls 
do  not  a  prison  make.  This  is  also  true  of  a  city — stone  walls  do  not 
make  a  city.  A  city  is  composed  of  the  spirit  and  pride  of  its 
citizens.  Any  thing  and  every  thing  which  raises  and  ennobles 
its  citizens  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  its  government.  There- 
fore it  has  always  been  the  great  joy  and  the  great  pleasure  of  the 
City  of  New  York  to  do  all  in  its  power  to  encourage  the  work  of 
this  Museum. 

I  was  visiting  today  the  Natural  History  Museum,  and  I 
saw  a  picture  in  its  galleries  by  one  of  our  ancient  forebears.  Per- 
haps forty  or  fifty  thousand  years  ago  he  had  drawn  that  wonderful 
picture  in  a  cave  in  France.  It  seemed  to  me  then  that  perhaps 
it  was  at  that  moment  that  man  first  recognized  the  importance  of  his 
position,  that  he  first  assumed  the  privileges  of  his  birthright,  that 
he  left  aside  the  merely  practical,  so  called,  and  launched  himself 
into  works  of  the  imagination,  and  into  the  ideal.  It  was  then 
that  for  the  first  time  he  raised  himself  from  earth  and  made  himself, 
as  it  were,  the  equal  of  God,  a  creator  with  God. 

Every  thing  may  perish,  but  ideas  are  eternal.  And  the  idea  of 
beauty  is  the  greatest  idea  of  all.  As  you  will  remember,  Sappho 
taught  us  in  days  of  old  that  the  beautiful  are  good  and  the  good  shall 
soon  be  beautiful.  I  myself  think  that  goodness  and  beauty  are 
one,  that  one  cannot  distinguish  one  from  the  other,  and  therefore 
I  take  it  that  every  thing  which  encourages  the  love  of  beauty  in  a 
city  encourages  the  goodness  of  that  city  and  promotes  its  welfare 
in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word. 

Why  people  should  distinguish  so  insistently  between  the  practica 
and  the  ideal  has  often  been  a  wonder  to  me.  They  tell  us  that  an 
electric  light  is  practical,  but  a  work  of  art,  or  a  good  book  is  not 

13 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

practical.  But  let  me  ask  you,  "Wouldn't  the  worth  of  the  light  be 
greatly  diminished — reduced  to  nothing — if  there  were  not  this  work 
of  art  and  this  book  to  be  studied  by  the  light?"  No,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  it  is  the  ideal  which  really  counts.  The  practical  simply 
exists  for  the  ideal,  in  order  that  through  it  we  may  enjoy  and 
ennoble  ourselves  by  the  consideration  of  the  ideal — beauty. 

And  even  in  matters  of  science,  the  imagination  has  vast  import- 
ance, for  I  take  it  that  imagination  is,  as  it.were,  the  scout  aeroplane 
of  science.  With  its  piercing  eye  it  finds  the  way,  and  points  it 
out  to  science,  which  can  only  follow  with  heavy  and  stumbling 
steps. 

Ideas,  as  I  said  before,  are  perpetual  and  eternal.  They  are 
the  only  things  that  man  can  produce  which  will  last  forever.  The 
ideas  which  were  created  and  were  imagined  centuries  and  thousands 
of  years  ago  are  still  active  in  our  midst.  The  canvas,  perhaps,  on 
which  those  ideas  were  displayed  has  perished.  Perhaps  the  very 
stone  which  has  been  carved  in  semblance  of  a  god  has  disappeared. 
Perhaps  the  very  words  in  which  those  ideas  were  formulated  have 
become  null,  simply  nonsense  to  our  now  understanding  ears.  And 
yet  those  ideas  go  on,  go  on.  So  it  follows  that  everything  which 
promotes  the  goodness  and  the  purity  and  the  highness  of  our 
ideas,  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  city  government. 

One  of  the  very  few  things,  one  might  almost  say,  that  remain 
of  the  great  conquest  of  Alexander  in  Asia  is  the  fact  that  a  marked 
impression  is  even  to  this  day  seen  in  Chinese  art — the  effect  of  the 
Grecian  art  which  was  brought  into  Asia  in  those  long-ago  days. 
We  can  say  that  once  the  love  of  the  beautiful  is  aroused  in  man 
it  will  go  on  forever  to  all  future  generations. 

It  is  not  only  my  duty,  but  my  privilege,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
pleasures  I  have  ever  enjoyed,  to  be  here  present  to  congratulate  the 
President  and  the  Trustees  of  this  great  Museum  on  the  first  fifty 
years  of  its  labors.  I  hope  that  fifty  years  more  will  see  this  Museum 
still  continuing  prosperous  on  its  fruitful  career,  still  the  center  of 
the  high  ideal  life  of  this  great  city  of  ours,  of  this  great  country 
of  ours — that  it  may  still  continue  teaching  that  that  which  is  not 
beautiful  can  not  be  good,  and  that  beauty  and  goodness  are  one. 


14 


ADDRESS  BY  JOHN  H.  FINLEY 

When  Themistocles  was  asked,  says  Plutarch,  to  speak  freely 
concerning  the  affairs  of  the  Greeks,  before  the  Persian  King,  Xerxes, 
he  replied  that  a  man's  discourse  was  like  a  Persian  carpet,  the 
beautiful  figures  and  patterns  of  which  can  be  shown  only  by  spread- 
ing and  extending  it  out;  when  it  is  contracted  and  folded  up  they 
are  obscured  and  lost.  The  King  bidding  him  take  what  time  he 
would,  he  said  that  he  desired  a  year,  in  which  time  he  learned  the 
Persian  language  sufficiently  to  say  in  the  King's  own  tongue  what 
he  wished  to  speak  to  the  King. 

I  should  (like  Themistocles)  need  a  whole  year  in  which  to  pre- 
pare an  address  which  could  be  worthy  to  be  presented  in  this  House 
of  Beautiful  Things  and  in  the  presence  of  those  living  and  dead 
who  have  adorned  it. 

As  it  is,  I  can  bring  but  a  sketch  of  the  figure  and  pattern  of 
what  I  would  say  on  behalf  of  the  State  (the  mother  of  your  immortal 
corporate  self)  since  the  Governor,  to  his  great  regret,  cumbered  with 
many  bills,  cannot  be  here;  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New 
York  (your  mystical,  all-loving,  God-mother) ;  and  of  my  own  self, 
a  devoted  friend  of  your  President,  Mr.  de  Forest. 

Despite  the  fact  that  I  may  not  extend  my  brief  address  to  its 
full  pattern,  I  begin  near  the  beginning  of  time — as  it  is  recorded 
in  the  Book  of  Books. 

There  is  a  legend  that  Enoch  (not  the  son  of  Cain  but  the 
Enoch,  an  early  descendant  of  Adam,  who  according  to  the  scriptural 
record  was  translated),  being  forewarned  that  the  earth  would  perish 
once  by  water  and  once  by  fire,  erected  two  pillars,  known  as  "Enoch's 
Pillars,"  one  of  stone  and  one  of  brick,  on  which  he  caused  to  be 
engraved  "all  such  learning  as  had  been  delivered  to  or  invented  by 
mankind."  "Thus,"  the  legend  adds,  "it  was  that  all  knowledge  and 
learning  were  not  lost;  for  one  of  these  pillars  remained  after  the  flood." 

IS 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

How  meagre  must  have  been  that  which  mankind  had  to  remember 
when  all  that  it  was  thought  necessary  to  preserve  against  oblivion 
by  fire  or  flood  could  be  written  on  a  pillar  of  stone  (and  a  duplicate 
copy  on  one  of  brick).  And  how  simple,  elemental,  and  short  an 
educational  curriculum  it  would  have  taken  to  compass  all  that  one 
generation  had  to  transmit  to  the  next,  if  all  that  the  schoolmaster 
had  to  teach  were  graven  on  these  shafts  which  were  mindful  ever  of 
the  past  and  yet  portentous  ever  of  the  fate  that  was  threatening 
the  earth! 

I  have  often  wished  that  the  content  of  the  school  courses  of  all 
the  peoples  of  the  earth  might  be  analyzed  and  compared  (French, 
English,  German,  Italian,  American)  in  order  that  we  might  know 
after  eliminating  the  purely  local  material,  just  what,  in  detail  and 
in  scope,  the  race  as  a  whole  most  wished  to  transmit  to  its  children 
(and  so  to  a  new  race  if  a  Noachian  disaster  were  again  to  overwhelm 
the  earth).  If  we  could  but  summarize  this  residuum,  it  would  be 
worth  while  to  have  engraved  elementary  Enochian  pillars  erected  at 
every  street  corner  for  the  living,  or  set  upon  our  highest  mountains 
and  buried  in  fire-proof  vaults  against  such  emergencies  as  Enoch 
prepared  for. 

I  have  seen  in  one  of  our  museums  the  clay  copy-book  of  a  Baby- 
lonian school  boy  (of  beyond  2000  B.  C.)  in  which  having  failed,  evi- 
dently, to  follow  the  copy  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  teacher,  he  had 
pressed  out  with  his  thumb  a  part  of  what  he  had  written  leaving  a 
print  for  some  specialist  centuries  later  to  examine.  How  meagre 
must  his  "copy"  have  been.  Yet  it  was  presumably  still  farther 
back  that  Enoch's  Pillars  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  squalid  urban 
huts,  on  the  dim  edge  of  history  and  on  the  brink  of  the  deserts. 
What  would  we  not  give  to  know  what  was  written  there?  Was  there 
anything  that  the  world  has  forgotten,  of  its  genesis  and  childhood? 

This  we  know,  that  no  thing  of  color  hung  upon  it  such  as  adorned 
the  Tabernacle.  No  workmanship  of  Bezaleel  or  Aholiab  embellished 
it.  No  Madonna's  face  enhaloed  by  Raphael  looked  out  from  it. 
There  was  "no  framed  Correggio's  fleeting  glow."  No  figures  such 
as  Angelo  wrought,  no  bas-relief  as  that  of  our  own  St.  Gaudens 
rested  the  eyes  of  those  who  looked  on  it.  It  had  nothing  more  of 
beauty  on  it  than  the  pillar  of  stone  from  Egypt  which  stands  back  of 
this  great  building. 

And  yet  how  bare,  as  Enoch's  Pillars,  of  rare  beauty,  wrought  of 

16 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

human  hands,  are  those  pillars  of  knowledge  toward  which  millions 
of  children  today  look  for  their  heritage;  as  bare  as  if  Phidias  and 
Praxiteles,  Angelo  and  Raphael,  Frans  Hals  and  Rembrandt,  Turner, 
Millet,  and  Rodin  and  all  the  rest  had  never  lived;  as  bare  aestheti- 
cally as  if  the  world's  past  were  such  as  lies  back  of — I  was  going 
to  say  a  Hopi  Indian;  but  even  his  world  has  more  of  the  aesthetic 
in  it  than  that  of  children,  yes  and  men  and  women,  I  have  seen  not  a 
hundred  miles  from  this  place. 

But  now  and  here  in  the  midst  of  this  metropolis  grown  to  a  "cos- 
mopolis"  there  rise  new  "Pillars  of  Enoch,"  pillars  that  have  so 
much  to  carry  upon  them  that  they  have  to  be  extended  into  walls, 
many  hundreds  of  feet  in  length  and  enclosing  many  chambers — 
pillars  erected  not  that  all  "learning  and  knowledge"  but  that  the 
most  beautiful  of  all  that  has  been  "delivered  to"  man  on  this  side 
of  the  water  or  that  has  been  "invented  by"  him,  shall  not  be  lost! 
Nor  that  alone!  Not  alone  that  it  shall  not  be  lost  but  that  it  shall  be 
made  an  inspiriting,  vital  part  of  the  daily  life  of  the  people.  Such 
is  this  great  Museum,  whose  golden  jubilee  we  celebrate  today. 

For  this  Museum  is  in  its  new  functioning  primarily  an  educa- 
tional institution,  a  place  not  simply  of  conserving  or  recording  but 
of  teaching — a  pillar  not  merely  of  memory  nor  yet  of  portent,  like 
that  of  Enoch,  or  like  that  which  the  Tartars  set  up  (after  their  flight 
from  Russia,  as  recorded  by  De  Quincey)  in  the  shadow  of  the  Great 
Wall  of  China,  to  mark  the  end  of  a  journey,  but  rather  of  progress 
like  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  with  its  duplicate  of  fire  by  night,  in 
the  midst  of  this  wilderness  of  houses,  ever  leading  on  to  a  promised 
land,  a  land  of  ideals  never  reached. 

For  inscription  on  this  pillar,  there  is  nothing  better  to  be  written 
than  the  creed  which  you  have  yourselves  composed,  a  creed  which 
will,  however,  be  impotent  to  save,  unless  the  people  say  it  with  you, 
and  especially  through  their  schools.  Representing,  as  I  think  I  may, 
the  teachers  of  this  State  and  City,  I  repeat  it  today  with  you: 

"i.  We  believe  that  every  human  being  is  born  with  a  potential 
love  of  beauty,  and  whether  this  capacity  lies  dormant  or  springs 
into  activity  depends  largely  upon  his  education. 

"2.  We  believe  that  whether  the  cultivation  of  this  faculty 
adds  to  the  earning  capacity  of  its  possessor  or  not,  it  does  unques- 
tionably increase  his  happiness  and  this  in  time  reacts  upon  his  health 
of  mind  and  body. 

17 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

"3.  We  believe  that  the  Metropolitan  Museum  has  an  importan-t 
role  to  play  in  the  education  of  the  innate  love  of  beauty. 

"4.  We  believe  that  through  the  cooperation  of  the  Museum 
and  the  schools  a  generation  of  young  Americans  may  grow  up  who 
will  know  how  to  see  beauty  everywhere  because  they  have  learned 
its  language  here. 

"5.  We  believe"  (and  here  I  catch  into  the  creed  the  words  of 
Joseph  H.  Choate  at  the  dedication  of  this  building  in  1880,  words  in 
which  he  expressed  the  feeling  of  the  founders),  "not  only  that  the 
diffusion  of  a  knowledge  of  art  in  its  highest  forms  of  beauty  will  tend 
directly  to  humanize,  to  educate,  and  refine  a  practical  and  laborious 
people  .  .  .  but  will  also  show  to  students  and  artisans  of  every 
branch  of  industry,  in  the  high  and  acknowledged  standards  of  form 
and  color,  what  the  past  has  accomplished  for  them  to  imitate  and 
excel." 

But  that  this  creed  may  have  potency  not  only  must  it  be  repeated 
daily  by  both  the  Museum  and  the  schools,  as  I  have  intimated,  but 
constantly  must  the  pillars  (this  Museum)  be  enriched  with  the 
continuing  best  that  has  been  or  will  be  "delivered  to"  or  "invented 
by"  mankind  and  then  transmuted  into  the  vision  and  the  skill  of 
the  succeeding  generations.  Every  school-room  must  open  upon  the 
Museum  or  the  Museum  must  open  every  school-room.  And  there 
should  not  be  a  tenement,  however  bare,  in  which  some  of  the  paint- 
ings of  these  galleries  do  not  hang  or  some  bit  of  sculpture  does  not 
stand,  or  the  fire  of  some  jewel  does  not  glow,  because  they  who  live 
in  it  have  carried  back  to  it  what  they  have  seen  here  in  this  (other) 
common  room  of  their  home. 

And  more  and  more  essential  to  the  life  of  our  people  is  this  Mu- 
seum, not  only  because  of  its  practical  ministry  to  the  efficiency  of 
the  crafts  (the  "mysteries,"  as  they  were  once  called)  but  also  because 
of  its  ennobling  and  enriching  contribution  to  the  increasing  leisure 
time  of  millions;  for  I  have  come  to  believe  (I  find  that  Aristotle 
anticipated  me  by  more  than  two  thousand  years  in  this  view,  though 
I  did  not  know  this  till  I  had  reached  it  myself)  that  the  right  use  of 
leisure  is  a  chief  end  of  education. 

The  Children  of  Israel  were  commanded  to  observe  once  a  year 
for  the  period  of  seven  days  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  and  live  in  tents 
or  under  temporary  roofs  in  order  that  they  might  be  kept  gratefully 
mindful  of  the  way  by  which  their  fathers  had  been  led  out  of  cap- 

18 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

tivity  in  Egypt.  I  have  often  wished  that  all  of  us  might  celebrate 
such  a  feast  each  year  for  as  many  days  (even  if  not  consecutively 
and  without  more  holidays,  but  in  our  leisure  hours,  with  this  same 
purpose).  It  would  keep  us  out  of  pessimism.  It  would  not  be 
practicable  for  us  to  go  out  and  live  in  tents  or  booths  perhaps,  and, 
indeed,  we  could  more  profitably  and  to  better  purpose  observe  such  a 
feast  beneath  the  roofs  of  our  great  museums — the  Natural  History 
Museum  and  the  Metropolitan  Museum. 

If  the  Governor  of  this  State  were  willing  to  add  another  to  his 
many  helpful  proclamations,  I  would  recommend  this  one,  though  I 
suspect  that  he  would  hardly  be  willing  to  follow  the  form  into  which 
I  have  put  it: 

This  shall  ye  do,  O  men  of  Earth, 
Ye  who've  forgotten  your  far  birth 
Your  forbears  of  the  slanting  skull 
Barbaric,  brutal,  sluggard,  dull, 
(Of  whom  no  portraits  hang  to  boast 
The  ancient  lineage  of  the  host). 
Ye  who've  forgot  the  time  when  they 
Were  redolent  of  primal  clay. 
Or  lived  in  wattled  hut,  or  cave. 
But,  turned  to  dust  or  drowned  by  wave, 
Have  left  no  traces  on  Time's  shores 
Save  mounds  of  shells  at  their  cave  doors 
And  lithic  knives  and  spears  and  darts 
And  savage  passions  in  our  hearts 
This  shall  ye  do:    *     *     * 

(Then  would  follow  specific  directions  as  to  visiting  the  Museum 
of  Natural  History) : 

Beneath  whose  roofs 

Ye  yet  may  hear  the  flying  hoofs 

Of  beasts  long  gone,  the  cries  of  those 

Who  were  your  fathers'  forest  foes 

Or  see  their  shadows  riding  fast 

Along  the  edges  of  the  past. 

19 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

(And  then  would  be  given  other  specific  directions  as  to  reaching 
the  place  of  the  crowning  glories,  the  supreme  mysteries,  of  man's 
handiwork,  this  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.) 

All  this  that  ye  may  keep  in  mind 
The  nomad  way  by  which  mankind 
Has  come  from  his  captivity; 
Walking  dry-shod  the  earth-wide  sea, 
Riding  the  air,  consulting  stars, 
Driving  great  caravans  of  cars, 
Building  the  furnace,  bridge,  and  spire 
Of  earth-control  and  heav'n  desire. 
Stamping  on  canvas,  bronze,  and  stone 
The  highest  beauty  earth  has  known, 
Rising  in  journey  from  the  clod 
Into  the  glory  of  a  God — 
This  shall  ye  do,  O  men  of  Earth, 
That  ye  may  know  the  crowned  worth 
Of  what  ye  are — and  hope  renew, 
Seeing  the  road  from  dawn  to  you. 

Seeing  this  road,  then,  turning  from  these  museums  toward  the 
day's  works  and  the  day's  leisures,  we  should  find  a  new  courage, 
a  new  joy,  a  new  heaven,  and  a  new  earth — for  the  golden  days, 
though  this  is  a  golden  jubilee,  are  not  all  behind  us. 

The  saddest  picture  I  think  I  have  ever  seen  was  of  Eve,  the  grand- 
mother of  Enoch,  in  her  old  age  (and  I  had  never  before  thought  of 
Eve  as  growing  old).  She  was  being  borne  on  a  litter,  her  great 
son  Cain  at  her  side,  and  was  pointing,  as  she  sat,  toward  a  clump  of 
trees  on  a  distant  knoll  and  saying  or  seeming  to  say  to  Cain,  "You 
see  those  trees  yonder?  Well,  that  was  Paradise."  But  Paradise 
does  not  lie  behind  us — back  beyond  "Enoch's  Pillars."  It  lies  in 
the  direction  in  which  this  glorious  and  immortal  Mother  of  Beauty 
looks  in  these  collections — forward — the  direction  in  which  I  hope 
she  will  guide,  through  countless  fifty  years,  the  eyes  of  all  the  children 
in  this,  the  first  city  of  the  earth. 

That  this  may  be  the  relationship  between  art  museums  (and 
this  Museum  especially)  and  public  education,  is  my  jubilee  wish  on 
behalf  of  the  State. 


ADDRESS  BY  MORRIS  GRAY 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  bring  to  the  Metropolitan  the  tribute  of 
the  Boston  Museum — tribute  for  a  great  service,  greatly  rendered; 
not  confined  to  the  limits  of  the  city  but  extending  far  beyond.  For 
the  Metropolitan  is  indeed  the  gift  of  New  York  to  the  country.  And 
we  Americans  of  other  cities  who  have  no  share  in  the  making  must 
needs  feel  gratitude  for  the  gift — proud  of  the  giver. 

How  great  the  achievement  of  your  fifty  years!  The  splendor 
of  your  collections  an  inspiration  for  all  time.  The  teaching  of  the 
knowledge  of  art  in  all  its  manifold  intellectual  importance.  And 
far  different  and  far  more  important  the  development  of  the  love  of 
beauty  of  which  art  is  a  manifestation,  the  development  of  it  not 
as  a  luxury  but  as  an  integral  part  of  life.  It  is  in  this  that  your  great 
opportunity  lies. 

The  knowledge  of  art  is  common.  But  the  love  of  art  that  brings 
real  happiness  and  inspiration  to  the  heart  of  man  is  rare.  One  is 
an  intellectual  interest.  The  other  is  a  great  emotion.  Think  not 
that  this  development  of  the  love  of  beauty  is  necessary  for  the  poor 
and  uneducated  only.  It  is  necessary  and  in  fully  as  high  degree 
for  the  rich  and  educated.  It  applies  in  many  instances  to  us  who 
have  gathered  here,  certainly  to  me;  it  applies  often  to  those  who 
possessing  great  works  of  art  think  that  a  knowledge  of  prices,  of 
names,  of  schools,  of  technique,  means  a  love  of  art.  It  is  not  so. 
If  you  have  that  and  only  that  you  may  have  knowledge.  But  love 
lies  far  beyond.  Before  a  great  painting  or  a  great  sculpture  the  real 
love  of  art  manifests  itself,  not  in  the  clever  criticism  that  one  hears  so 
often  at  an  afternoon  tea  or  at  evening  around  the  dinner  table.  It 
manifests  itself  rather  in  silence — the  silence  that  is  like  the  hush  that 
one  feels  when  one  stands  in  the  cathedral  of  an  alien  faith  hallowed 
by  the  worship  of  many  generations.     It  manifests  itself  rather  in 

21 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

the  clutch  at  your  heart,  in  the  mist  in  your  eyes.     It  is  the  love  of 
art,  not  merely  the  knowledge  of  art,  that  is  the  great  thing. 

No,  the  love  of  beauty  is  not  restricted  to  the  aristocracy  of 
wealth  and  education.  It  belongs  rather  to  the  democracy  of  the 
things  of  the  spirit — free  to  all.  It  is  as  likely  to  be  the  possession  of 
the  immigrant  who  comes  to  our  shores  this  day  as  it  is  to  be  the 
possession  of  the  native  American  of  many  generations.  Let  me  give 
you  an  instance;  for  we  are  apt  to  differentiate  between  the  immi- 
grant and  ourselves  in  terms  of  money  and  material  things  and  to 
forget  the  spiritual  things  that  give  value  to  life.  At  one  of  your 
concerts  here  last  March  I  sat  near  a  girl  and  her  mother  and  sister, 
recent  immigrants  from  one  of  the  countries  of  southeastern  Europe, 
black  hair,  growing  low  upon  the  forehead,  a  white  pallor  and  out 
of  it  beautiful  eyes  that  seemed  to  hold  generations  of  tragedy  yet 
shimmered  now  and  then  into  sudden  gladness.  After  a  while  the 
musicians  played  something  which  came  out  of  that  part  of  the  world. 
It  had  the  wild,  weird,  primitive  human  quality.  It  tore  at  the 
heartstrings.  Presently  the  girl  put  her  elbows  on  her  knees,  her 
head  between  her  hands  and  I  saw  that  her  shoulders  were  quivering 
with  emotion.  When  the  musicians  stopped  she  threw  back  her  head 
and  the  tears  were  running  down  her  cheeks  yet  the  eyes  were  the 
eyes  of  joy  and  of  vision.  And  she  had  spiritual  wealth  far  greater 
than  we  had  for  she  saw  beauty,  as  it  must  always  be  seen  at  its 
greatest,  through  tears — tears  of  exaltation. 

Yet  the  development  of  this  love  of  beauty  has  not  only  a  value 
to  the  happiness  of  the  individual,  it  has  a  value  to  the  welfare  of  the 
nation.  The  things  that  are  material,  the  house,  the  food,  the  cloth- 
ing, the  business — what  you  choose — tend  to  differentiate  us.  The 
things  of  the  spirit  tend  to  bring  us  together.  It  is  not  on  the  things 
that  are  material,  it  is  on  the  things  that  are  spiritual  that  the  great 
kinships  of  life,  the  great  kinships  of  the  world  are  founded.  The 
war  and  the  aftermath  of  the  war  are  instances  of  this.  During  the 
war  we  were  all  united  in  carrying  through  one  great  spiritual  ideal, 
liberty.  The  man  who  stood  beside  you  in  front  of  the  Bulletin 
Board  was  your  friend,  your  kin.  The  divergence  of  the  material 
interests  of  the  individual  fell  by  the  wayside.  But  today  that 
divergence  has  again  come  to  the  fore.  The  old  antagonisms  arise. 
The  kinship  of  the  spiritual  cause  is  vanishing.  The  hope  that  the 
idealism  of  the  war  would  remanifest  itself  in  an  idealism  of  peace 

22 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

fails.  The  reaction  is  to  materialism.  It  is  not  well  with  our  coun- 
try. It  is  for  you  and  such  as  you  to  see  to  it  that  America  carries 
on  the  things  of  the  spirit  because  they  are  the  great  things  of  life; 
because  only  out  of  their  greatness  and  their  kinship  can  America 
render  the  greatest  service  to  the  world. 

The  love  of  beauty  is  a  thing  of  the  spirit.  It  is  free.  It  is  al- 
ready shared  to  some  extent  at  least  by  rich  and  poor,  by  educated  and 
uneducated.  It  brings  us  together.  It  makes  us  kin.  And  it  is.  in 
this  development  of  the  love  of  beauty  for  the  happiness  of  the  individ- 
ual and  for  the  welfare  of  the  state  that  your  great  opportunity 
lies.  And  backed  by  the  great  generosity  of  private  citizens,  sup- 
plemented by  that  of  the  City  itself,  led  by  men  of  far-reaching  vis- 
ion, Mr.  de  Forest,  Mr.  Robinson  and  their  associates,  it  is  not  only 
your  opportunity — it  is,  I  believe,  your  destiny.  And  to  this  des- 
tiny, I  bid  you  God  speed. 

And  out  of  it  all  will  come  the  day  when  the  master  will  be  born 
who  shall  embody  the  great  ideals  of  America  in  imperishable  art. 
The  art  that  speaks  for  all  time.  The  art  that  knows  no  barrier  of 
tongue  or  race.  And  although  you  and  I  be  blind  and  deaf  and  dumb 
in  our  power  of  expression  we  shall  know  that  he  has  embodied  the 
longing  of  our  hearts.  We  shall  know  that  whether  the  America  of 
today  lives  or  dies  its  great  ideals  will  live  an  inspiration  for  ages  yet 
unborn.  For  nations  come  and  go  but  art,  the  art  that  embodies 
their  great  ideals,  lives.  And  the  master  will  go  singing  through  the 
ages.  And  we  shall  be  forgot  yet  we  too  shall  serve.  Even  as  the 
earth  that  nourisheth  the  divine  seed  lives  in  the  perfect  flower. 


a3 


ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  L.  HUTCHINSON 

Mr.  President  and  Members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  The 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art: 
It  is  my  privilege  and  my  pleasure  to  bring  greetings  and  con- 
gratulations from  the  Trustees  of  The  Art  Institute  of  Chicago. 
They  rejoice  with  you  as  you  celebrate  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  this  Museum,  for  they  appreciate  the  great  work  which 
it  has  done  and  are  ahve  to  the  importance  of  that  work.  They 
are  happy  also  to  have  this  opportunity  of  publicly  thanking  you  not 
only  for  the  inspiration  but  also  for  the  kindly  cooperation  received 
at  your  hands,  and  from  the  efficient  members  of  your  staff.  First 
among  the  art  museums  of  our  land,  the  Metropolitan  is  a  true 
leader  in  museum  work.  No  director  of  any  art  museum  of  our 
country  is  abreast  of  the  times  if  he  is  not  cognizant  of  what  you  are 
doing  here.  Your  work  has  been  successful  in  the  highest  degree. 
I  know  that  you  are  aware  of  this,  still  it  must  be  gratifying  for  you 
to  know  that  your  efforts  are  appreciated  by  others  engaged  in  the 
same  noble  work,  who  understand  the  educational  value  of  art  in 
every  field  of  human  endeavor.  I  am  strongly  tempted  to  speak 
upon  a  "hobby."  It  would  furnish  a  fitting  text  for  this  occasion, 
for  my  hobby  is — The  Democracy  of  Art.  The  subject  is  almost  as 
hackneyed  as  the  word  "art"  itself.  What  word  in  the  English 
language  has  been  more  often  misused  and  so  much  abused?  Think 
of  the  crimes  committed  in  its  name.  Think  of  all  that  we  are  called 
upon  to  accept  as  masterpieces  of  art.  Would  that  we  could  coin 
another  word  to  express  that  coordinating  intelligence  and  skill  which 
man  exercises  in  creating  beautiful  things,  which  we  call  Art.  Until 
the  true  mission  of  art  is  more  widely  understood,  there  will  be  need 
of  much  preaching,  of  emphasizing  the  democratic  nature  of  art,  and 
setting  forth  the  great  value  of  art  as  a  vital  factor  in  the  every-day 
life  of  the  materialistic  age  in  which  we  live.     Perhaps   the  whole 

-      24 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

theory  of  the  Democracy  of  Art  is  best  expressed  in  the  words  of 
Thomas  Nelson  Page — Art  is  a  luxury  for  the  rich  and  a  necessity  for 
the  poor. 

However,  we  will  not  yield  to  temptation  but  follow  the  lines 
suggested  by  your  President,  when  he  invited  us  to  speak  on  this 
occasion;  with  characteristic  broadmindedness,  he  would  not  have 
us  consider  the  wonderful  growth  of  your  Museum  but  rather  tell 
of  the  progress  of  art  and  art  museums  in  the  United  States  during  the 
last  half-century.  The  history  of  the  founding  and  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  has  been  presented  to  us  in  the 
able  and  comprehensive  account  by  Miss  Winifred  E.  Howe.  A 
wonderful  story,  ably  presented.  You  will  note  that  only  two  speak- 
ers outside  of  the  State  of  New  York  are  upon  the  program  this 
afternoon — one  from  the  East  and  one  from  the  West.  Coming 
from  the  West,  I  infer  that  it  would  be  fitting  for  me  to  speak  on 
the  development  of  art  in  the  West.  Still  East  and  West  are  so 
closely  bound  together  that  it  is  perhaps  unfair  to  make  any  distinc- 
tion between  them. 

Since  the  foundation  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  America  has 
made  great  progress  in  the  fostering  and  developing  of  the  Fine 
Arts — or  rather,  let  us  say,  since  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-two. 
We  choose  this  date,  because  in  that  year  for  the  first  time  our  Gov- 
ernment recognized  the  Fine  Arts  in  the  report  of  its  Bureau  of  Edu- 
cation. 

This  progress,  however,  has  been  especially  marked  during  the 
past  twenty-five  years.  The  work  has  gone  forward  with  great 
rapidity  in  the  West  as  well  as  in  the  East.  By  West  I  mean  the 
country  west  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains. 

In  discussing  the  progress  of  the  Fine  Arts,  one  must  necessarily 
give  consideration  to  the  three  principal  agencies  through  which  they 
have  been  advanced — they  are  the  Art  Museum  and  Art  School  and 
Art  Society.  The  increase  and  growth  of  all  of  these  agencies  during 
the  past  fifty  years  have,  as  I  have  already  stated,  been  phenomenal 
and  furnish  a  good  index  of  the  progress  of  art  in  our  country.  Of 
these  agencies  the  museum  has  been  the  most  potent. 

During  the  past  twenty-five  years  there  has  been  a  phenomenal 
development  of  museums  in  the  United  States,  especially  in  the 
West.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Trustees  of  our  museums 
realize  as  never  before  the  true  function  of  the  art  museum.     For- 

25 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

merly  it  did  not  include  the  education  of  the  artistic  sense  of  the 
visitor.  Today  we  appreciate  the  great  educational  possibilities 
of  the  museum  and  are  endeavoring  through  it  to  diffuse  informa- 
tion about  art  and  to  develop  an  appreciation  of  art  among  the 
people. 

The  introduction  of  this  educational  function  or  feature  into  our 
museums,  has  been  the  most  significant  fact  in  the  progress  of  the 
Fine  Arts  in  recent  years.  The  art  museum  of  the  past  is  set  aside. 
It  has  been  reconstructed,  it  has  been  transferred  from  a  cemetery 
of  bric-a-brac  into  a  nursery  of  living  thought.  The  museum  of 
today  is  democratic  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word.  Its  motto  is 
that  adopted  by  your  own  American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
many  years  ago — For  the  people, — for  Education, — for  Science. 
This  expresses  the  ideals  of  the  modern  museum.  The  museum  of 
the  future  will  stand  side  by  side  with  the  library  and  laboratory. 
It  must  be  introduced  into  our  colleges  and  universities.  It  must 
cooperate  with  the  library  and  the  school  as  one  of  the  principal 
agencies  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  people.  It  must  be  a  cause  of 
inspiration,  as  well  as  a  means  of  happiness, — a  vital  factor  in  the 
every-day  life  of  the  community. 

Art  for  art's  sake  is  a  selfish  and  erroneous  doctrine,  unworthy 
of  any  true  lover  of  art.  Art  for  humanity  and  a  service  of  art  for 
those  who  live  and  strive  in  a  humdrum  world,  is  the  true  doctrine 
and  one  that  every  art  museum  should  cherish. 

The  value  of  an  art  museum  is  measured  by  the  service  it  renders 
to  the  community  in  which  it  stands.  The  principal  function  of 
an  art  museum  is  the  cultivation  of  an  appreciation  of  the  beautiful. 
In  the  advancement  of  the  civilization  of  the  present  age  no  agency 
save  that  of  commerce  is  more  potent  than  that  of  art. 

The  first  museum  devoted  wholly  to  art  established  in  this 
country  was  the  Wadsworth  Atheneum  of  Hartford,  Connecticut, 
opened  to  the  public  in  eighteen  hundred  and  forty-two.  To  this 
Museum,  in  nineteen  hundred  and  twelve,  seventy  years  after  its 
foundation,  was  added  the  fine  Morgan  Memorial.  The  Museum 
is  still,  as  you  know,  an  active  one.  The  last  museum  thrown  open 
to  the  people  is  the  Butler  Gallery  at  Youngstown,  Ohio.  Only 
four  of  the  Eastern  museums,  those  at  Hartford,  Baltimore,  Buffalo, 
and  New  Haven,  are  older  than  the  Metropolitan,  while  the  Boston 
Museum  was  organized  in  the  same  year.    During  the  past  twenty- 

26 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

five  years,  thirteen  museums  have  been  established  west  of  the 
Allegheny  Mountains,  while  during  the  same  period  seven  were 
organized  in  the  East.  The  museums  of  the  West  have  been  visited 
during  the  past  two  years  by  three  million  visitors  annually,  while 
the  attendance  at  one  of  the  Western  museums  has  been  over  a  mil- 
lion each  year  for  the  past  two  years.  There  are  fifty  cities  in  the 
United  States  having  a  population  of  one  hundred  thousand  or  over. 
In  these  fifty  cities,  there  are  more  than  forty  museums  of  art  and 
two  hundred  and  sixteen  schools  of  art.  More  than  one  half  of  these 
museums  are  in  the  West.  The  attendance  in  these  Western  museums 
is  more  than  double  that  of  the  Eastern  museums. 

It  is  of  course  impossible  to  speak  of  each  one  of  these  museums 
upon  this  occasion.  Three,  however,  are  worthy  of  especial  men- 
tion. One  has  been  a  pioneer,  and  two  at  least  leaders  in  museum 
work. 

One  of  the  three  museums  is  worthy  of  special  mention  on  account 
of  its  rapid  and  wise  development  during  the  past  nine  years.  It  is 
the  Minneapolis  Institute  of  Arts. 

The  founding  of  this  Museum  was  unique  in  the  history  of  mu- 
seums in  this  country.  More  than  two  hundred  of  the  leading  citi- 
zens of  Minneapolis  were  mvited  to  dine  at  the  Minneapolis  Club 
in  January,  nineteen  hundred  and  eleven.  At  this  dinner  a  self- 
appointed  committee  surprised  most  of  those  present  by  presenting 
plans  for  the  building  of  an  art  museum.  One  of  the  number  offered 
a  site  for  the  Museum,  valued  at  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  provided  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  should  be  raised 
for  the  necessary  building.  Another  citizen  started  the  Fund  to  be 
raised  by  a  subscription  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  At  the 
close  of  the  evening,  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been 
subscribed — the  full  amount  was  obtained  before  the  close  of  the 
month.  As  I  read  of  the  initial  efforts  of  the  gentlemen  who  founded 
the  Metropolitan  Museum,  I  could  not  refrain  from  comparing  their 
experience  in  raising  money  with  that  of  our  Minneapolis  friends. — 
A  more  notable  company  of  men  met  and  organized  for  the  purpose 
of  founding  an  art  museum  in  New  York.  Two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  was  the  sum  deemed  necessary  for  the  venture — and 
this  sum  they  started  out  to  raise.  At  the  end  of  one  year,  only 
one  hundred  and  six  thousand  dollars  had  been  secured.  How  times 
have  changed!    How  different  was  their  experience  from  that  of  our 

27 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

Minneapolis  friends — who,  in  a  much  smaller  city  in  the  benighted 
West,  raised  for  an  art  museum  more  than  seven  times  as  much  money, 
in  less  than  one  month.  This  is  not  all.  The  Minneapolis  Mu- 
seum has  been  conspicuous  for  the  rapid  development  of  its  Museum 
and  School  since  that  eventful  evening  in  January,  nineteen  hundred 
and  eleven. 

The  second  museum  worthy  of  special  consideration  is  that  of 
Toledo,  Ohio. 

Of  the  Toledo  Museum  I  can  speak  without  embarrassment.  It 
furnishes  perhaps  the  best  example  in  the  United  States  of  what  a 
museum  should  strive  to  do  and  what  a  museum  can  do  in  a  small 
city,  if  it  has  men  like  William  Drummond  Libbey  behind  it,  and 
can  enlist  the  interest  of  the  people,  as  he  and  his  associates  have 
done  during  the  past  fifteen  years.  In  this  short  space  of  time  the 
Museum  has  built  for  itself  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  museum 
buildings.  Without  large  collections  of  any  kind,  it  has  cultivated 
a  most  intimate  relation  with  the  people  of  Toledo — all  classes  of 
citizens  are  interested  in  it  and  contribute  to  its  support — merchants, 
bankers,  school  children,  members  of  women's  clubs,  artists,  students, 
and  wage  earners — the  list  of  the  educational  activities  of  the  To- 
ledo Museum  will  astonish  you.  The  scope  of  its  work  is  far  beyond 
the  general  conception  of  work  proper  for  an  art  museum.  The 
most  conspicuous  fact  brought  out  by  the  work  of  the  Museum  is 
the  ready  response  made  by  the  people  of  the  city  to  the  advances 
of  the  Museum. 

This  leads  me  to  speak  of  the  Art  Institute  of  Chicago,  whose 
representative  I  have  the  honor  of  being  here  today.  The  Toledo 
Museum  of  Art  and  the  Art  Institute  of  Chicago  are  working  along 
the  same  lines  and  are  furnishing  good  examples  of  what  a  real  live 
museum  can  do.  They  have  energy,  vitality,  and  genuine  demo- 
cratic aspirations.  They  are  doing  much  to  bring  beauty  and  joy  to 
a  large  public.  They  are  potent  factors  in  the  life  of  a  busy  commer- 
cial city. 

I  was  not  born  in  Chicago  but  I  have  lived  there  so  long  that 
I  have  acquired  that  characteristic  modesty  for  which  its  citizens  are 
noted  and  of  which  the  Bostonian  has  so  little — so  I  hesitate  to  speak 
of  the  greatest  of  all  the  museums  of  the  West — ^The  Art  Institute  of 
Chicago.  Surely  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  Fine  Arts  not 
only  in  the  West  but  in  the  country  cannot  be  written  without  men- 

28 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

tion  of  it.  Chicago  is  regarded,  even  in  the  East,  as  an  art  center 
and  as  such  it  is  rather  unique  among  the  cities  of  the  land.  While 
it  is  an  art  center,  it  has  within  its  borders  an  active,  influential  center 
of  art.  Few  cities  are  so  fortunate.  The  center  of  art  in  Chicago  is 
the  Art  Institute.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  is  nothing 
artistic  in  Chicago  outside  of  the  Art  Institute — far  from  it — there  is 
much,  but  in  and  about  the  Art  Institute  you  will  find  gathered  in 
one  way  or  other  a  great  majority  of  all  people  interested  in  the 
artistic  development  of  the  community.  This  is  as  it  should  be,  for 
in  every  city  the  museum  of  art  should  be  the  center  of  all  artistic 
forces.  I  wonder  if  I  dare  quote  the  opinion  of  one  in  no  way  con- 
nected with  the  Art  Institute.     I  will  venture  to  do  so. 

"The  Art  Institute  is  the  inspiring  center  of  the  free  education 
in  the  Art  of  Painting,  Sculpture,  Handicraft  and  Music,  and  the 
intellectual  life  for  all  citizens — men,  women  and  children  of  high  and 
low  degree.  During  the  past  year  the  visitors  at  the  Art  Institute 
numbered  a  full  million.  All  were  welcome.  Other  Museums 
throughout  the  country  will  record  more  acquisitions  and  endowments 
but  no  one  is  enveloped  in  a  more  liberal  atmosphere  of  good  will 
toward  the  public — from  the  Director  and  his  associates,  the  office 
force,  the  guards,  the  messenger  boy  and  the  humble  women  polish- 
ing the  floor — none  are  ever  so  busy  that  they  cannot  stop  in  courtesy 
to  a  stranger.  Each  and  everyone  has  the  service  of  the  Art  Insti- 
tute as  an  ideal  and  it  is  this  personal  hospitality  that  enhances 
the  value  of  the  Art  Institute  a  hundredfold.  It  is  a  never-ending 
cause  of  comment  among  artists  and  travelers  who  have  visited  all 
the  great  Galleries  and  Museums  of  the  world."  The  Trustees  of 
the  Art  Institute  are  striving  to  create  just  such  a  museum  as  is 
here  described. 

Other  influences  besides  these  of  the  Museum,  School,  and  Art 
Society  have  been  at  work  in  the  West.  Some  of  the  most  conspicu- 
ous events  in  the  history  of  the  advancement  of  art  in  our  country 
have  occurred  west  of  the  AUeghenies.  Foremost  among  them  are 
the  five  expositions  held  in  the  West  during  the  past  twenty-five 
years. 

Probably  no  one  event  in  the  progress  of  art  in  the  West  has  been 
more  potent  than  that  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  held 
in  Chicago  in  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-three.  The  Centennial 
Exposition  of  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-six  awakened  an  interest 

29 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

in  art  among  the  people  of  the  East,  but  in  the  development  of  the  art 
movement  not  only  in  the  West,  but  in  our  whole  country,  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition  still  stands  as  the  one  supreme  event.  It 
marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  art  in  the  United 
States. 

The  Exposition  at  St.  Louis  was  also  of  great  value — so  were 
the  two  California  expositions,  those  at  San  Francisco  and  San 
Diego,  especially  the  one  at  San  Diego.  Its  buildings  and  grounds 
presented  the  most  perfect  and  exquisite  setting  for  an  exposition 
ever  created. 

These  five  expositions  have  done  much  to  advance  the  progress 
of  art  among  us  by  arousing  the  people  to  a  proper  appreciation  of, 
and  interest  in  the  Fine  Arts.  It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate 
the  value  of  their  influence. 

Let  me  quote  from  the  writing  of  a  distinguished  Eastern  critic 
who  said — "Over  and  above  all  that  has  been  done  for  the  progress 
of  the  Fine  Arts,  the  most  significant  event  is  that  of  the  building  of 
the  World's  Columbian  Fair  at  Chicago."  It  was  the  turning-point 
in  the  artistic  progress  of  our  country.  It  was  so  marked  that  it  may 
well  be  called  another  epoch.  Its  effect  was  profound  and  far-reaching, 
strongly  influencing  our  subsequent  work  and  point  of  view.  It  was 
the  first  occasion  upon  which  there  were  brought  together  to  work  for 
a  common  result, — not  only  a  number  of  architects,  but  also  prac- 
titioners of  the  allied  arts.  It  taught  a  lesson  that  the  architect, 
the  painter,  and  the  sculptor,  if  each  is  to  reach  his  highest  expres- 
sion, must  all  work  together,  mind  to  mind,  hand  to  hand, — not  as 
separate  units  fortuitously  assembled,  but  as  an  intimately  interwoven, 
mutually  comprehending  team,  as  men  worked  in  the  great  ages  of 
the  past — to  make  great  art.  The  World's  Columbian  Exposition 
taught  a  great  lesson  of  collaboration. 

We  are  not  unmindful  of  all  that  has  been  going  on  in  the  East. 
We  realize  that  the  Metropolitan  alone  has  achieved  a  position  sur- 
passing that  of  all  the  Western  museums  combined.  It  is  one  of  the 
greatest  museums  of  the  world. 

There  are  several  notable  facts  in  the  history  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  which  should  not  be  overlooked.  They  furnish  a  wise  ex- 
ample for  every  community  seeking  to  better  the  condition  of  its 
people. 

First  of  all,  your  Museum  has  been  exceedingly  fortunate  in  hav- 

30 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

ing  from  the  first  year  of  its  existence,  the  cooperation  of  the  muni- 
cipality with  individual  contributions — State,  City,  and  private 
citizens  have  been  interested  in  your  work.  From  the  time  Mr. 
Tweed  and  Mr.  Sweeney  befriended  you,  until  the  time  when  you 
received  the  magnificent  gift  of  Mr.  Altman,  this  help  has  been  forth- 
coming. Let  us  give  Tammany  Hall  the  credit  due  it  for  the  support 
it  has  given  not  only  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  but  also  to 
the  Museum  of  Natural  History.  Mr.  Sweeney  may  have  been  a 
shrewd  politician  but  he  was  a  far-sighted  man  when  he  said  to  your 
representative  who  went  to  him  for  recognition  of  the  Museum, 
"This  is  just  in  our  line,  in  line  with  our  ideas  of  progress  in  New 
York  City."  Would  that  all  our  politicians  were  as  wise  and  would 
that  every  state  would  follow  the  example  set  by  New  York  in  foster- 
ing public  museums. 

One  cannot  review  the  history  of  this  Museum  or  the  development 
of  art  in  our  country  without  recalling  first  of  all  the  great  personal 
devotion  and  princely  gifts  of  J.  Pierpont  Morgan.  Mr.  Altman's 
gift  is  also  valuable  as  an  example  showing  what  can  be  done  by  a 
public-spirited  citizen  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-man.  With  one 
exception  no  single  gift  has  ever  been  made  to  any  public  museum 
of  art  as  fine  and  as  valuable  as  that  of  Mr.  Altman.  The  one  ex- 
ception is  that  of  the  Wallace  Collection.  The  latter  was  the  work  of 
three  generations,  while  the  collection  of  Mr.  Altman  was  brought 
together  in  three  decades.  Probably  no  museum  of  the  world  has 
had  so  large  a  number  of  conspicuous  gifts  such  as  those  of  Mr.  Rogers, 
during  the  past  fifty  years,  as  the  Metropolitan.  I  wish  there  were 
time  to  mention  the  many  benefactors  who  have  enriched  your  his- 
tory by  devotion  and  treasure  from  John  Taylor  Johnston,  its  first 
President,  do,wn  to  its  present  incumbent — Robert  W.  de  Forest. 
To  no  one  does  the  Museum  owe  more  than  to  the  man  who  has  for 
the  past  seven  years  guided  the  work  of  the  Museum  and  inspired 
not  only  the  members  of  its  staff  but  all  those  vitally  interested  in 
museum  work  throughout  the  country. 

It  is  our  good  fortune  to  be  citizens  of  a  noble  Republic.  Of  this 
citizenship  we  are  justly  proud.  We  do  not  always  appreciate  our 
heritage  or  realize  the  duty  it  imposes  upon  us.  We  seldom  stop  to 
think  at  what  sacrifice  it  has  been  bequeathed  to  us.  Nowhere  else 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  is  democracy  more  triumphant  than  in  this 
land  of  ours,  but  even  here  it  still  falls  far  short  of  that  ideal  democracy 

31 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

of  which  we  sometimes  dream.  Recognizing  this  fact,  it  is  well  to 
ask  ourselves  what  is  the  ultimate  object  of  democracy.  I  think  it 
was  President  Eliot  who  said,  "Democracy  is  to  increase  the  satisfac- 
tion and  joys  of  life  for  the  great  masses  of  people."  We  are  seeking 
to  advance  the  civilization  of  the  age  in  which  we  live.  Some  people 
look  upon  civilization  as  they  look  upon  art, — something  to  be  separ- 
ated from  common  every-day  life.  True  civilization  is  simply  a 
knowledge  of  how  to  live  and  a  way  to  use  that  knowledge.  Our 
task  is  that  of  civilizing  the  great  democracy  of  which  we  are  citizens. 
For  this,  first  of  all  we  must  have  orderly,  healthy,  well-governed 
communities. 

In  them  we  must  establish  certain  great  institutions  of  light  and 
learning  to  stimulate  thought,  to  refine  and  elevate  taste,  to  make  life 
more  full  of  joy.  These  institutions  must  be  amply  endowed  and  in- 
telligently conducted.  Through  them  every  effort  must  be  made  to 
reach  and  uplift  all  classes  of  citizens.  Among  these  institutions  there 
should  be  great  universities,  libraries,  hospitals,  opera  houses,  theatres, 
public  parks  and  playgrounds,  and  museums  of  art — the  last  is  not  the 
least.  It  is  to  promote  and  foster  them  that  we  are  gathered  here 
today. 

There  have  been  two  great  epochs  in  the  history  of  art.  The 
first  was  that  of  classical  antiquity  and  the  second  that  of  the  Renais- 
sance. These  two  epochs  were  separated  the  one  from  the  other  by 
only  a  thousand  years.  In  the  first  epoch,  architecture  and  sculpture 
were  preeminent.  Greek  influence  dominated  the  world.  In  the 
second  period,  that  of  the  Renaissance,  Italian  creative  genius  led 
all  nations.  Is  there  any  good  reason  why  there  should  not  be  an- 
other Renaissance  of  Art?  Indeed,  are  we  not  already  on  its  thresh- 
old? The  more  you  consider  the  state  of  art  in  our  country  and  the 
conditions  surrounding  it,  the  more  you  will  rejoice  at  the  outlook 
for  the  future.  There  is  an  awakening  on  every  hand.  Public- 
spirited  citizens  throughout  the  country  are  intent  on  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Fine  Arts.  There  is  no  such  activity  in  the  world  of  art 
in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 

In  this  third  great  period  in  the  history  of  art  there  is  no  reason 
why  American  influence  should  not  prevail.  Why  should  not  our 
country  be  the  center  of  this  new  movement?  Conditions  are 
favorable.  In  this  new  movement  why  should  not  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  take  the  lead?    The  opportunity  is  yours.     In  the  light 

32 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

of  what  you  have  accomplished  during  the  first  fifty  years  of  your 
existence,  no  one  need  hesitate  to  prophesy  that  you  will  embrace  the 
opportunity.  As  you  lead,  we  will  follow.  We  will  rejoice  at  your 
success,  as  we  do  today,  and  gladly  acclaim  you  first  and  foremost  of 
us  all.    Again  I  congratulate  you. 


33 


ADDRESS  BY  ROBERT  W.  de  FOREST 

Fifty  years  ago  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  existed  only 
as  the  vision  of  a  group  of  public-spirited  persons — artists,  clergymen, 
lawyers,  men  of  affairs.  It  was  fitting  that  a  poet,  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  should  have  presided  at  the  meeting  which  first  made  their 
vision  articulate. 

This  vision,  unlike  most  dreams,  had  clear  definition.  It  embod- 
ied a  museum  to  contain  objects  illustrative  of  "all  the  arts,  whether 
industrial,  educational,  or  recreative;"  a  museum  "to  encourage  and 
develop  the  study  of  the  fine  arts  and  the  application  of  arts  to  man- 
ufactures and  practical  life." 

But  however  clearly  defined,  it  was  then  only  a  vision.  Those 
dreamers  had  "no  building,  not  even  a  site;  no  existing  collection  as  a 
nucleus;  no  money."  But  they  were  practical  men.  They  were  not 
content  merely  to  dream  a  beautiful  dream.  They  set  out  at  once  to 
make  their  dream  come  true.  Today  the  institution  which  they 
founded  has  a  building  extending  along  four  blocks  on  Fifth  Avenue; 
a  site  on  which  there  is  still  room  for  expansion;  collections  which  al- 
ready rival  in  extent  and  surpass  in  installation  those  of  the  great 
museums  of  Europe,  and  money  to  the  amount  of  more  than 
1 1 6,000,000.  True,  the  Museum  is  restricted  in  the  use  of  most  of 
this  money  but  it  is  none  the  less  Museum  money. 

The  Founders,  if  they  could  today  see  the  realization  of  their 
vision  (I  hope  they  can),  would  not  recognize  it.  The  conception, 
the  purpose  of  this  Museum,  its  foundation,  is  theirs — the  same  now 
as  it  was  then.  The  structure  which  has  been  built  on  this  foundation 
has  mounted  up  far  beyond  the  wildest  flight  of  their  imaginings. 

It  is  even  pathetic  to  recall  their  early  eflForts.  Their  appeal  for 
support  reads — "A  subscription  of  56250,000  will  ensure  the  complete 
success  of  the  Museum."    The  funding  of  a  million  of  dollars  "  would 

34 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

give  an  annual  income  sufficient  to  provide  for  proper  care  of  the  build- 
ing and  collections  and  to  add  to  the  collections  annually." 

It  took  a  long  time  to  find  even  that  1250,000.  In  March,  1871, 
only  1 1 06,000  had  been  subscribed.  It  was  not  until  later  that  the 
initial  $250,000  had  been  secured  and  the  subscriptions  became 
binding.  |io,ooo  was  the  largest  subscription.  There  were  two  of 
$5,000.     The  rest  came  in  sums  of  $1,000  and  of  $500. 

The  Founders  began  their  collections  by  the  purchase  of  174 
old  masters,  for  $116,180.27.  They  held  their  first  exhibition  two 
years  after  organization  in  a  rented  dancing  school. 

They  then  had  their  first  lesson  in  accepting  gifts.  "Mr.  Rowe 
presents  us,"  writes  Mr.  Johnston,  "with  a  colossal  dancing  girl, 
by  Schwanthaler,  the  celebrated  German  sculptor  at  Munich.  It 
may  be  very  fine  but  eight  feet  of  dance  is  a  trial  to  the  feelings. 
Hereafter  we  must  curb  the  exuberance  of  donors,  except  in  the  article 
of  money,  of  which  latter  they  may  give  as  much  as  they  please." 

That  was  forty-eight  years  ago.  Today  we  have  a  different  kind 
of  exhibition.  As  we  look  through  these  spacious  galleries  filled  with 
priceless  objects  of  art,  most  of  them  in  perpetual  possession  of  the 
Museum,  others  lent  to  it  to  celebrate  this  occasion,  we  may  well  put 
to  ourselves  the  question,  how  is  it  that  the  vision  of  the  Founders 
has  been  realized  so  far  beyond  their  most  extravagant  expectation? 
How  has  all  this  come  to  pass?  I  say  come  to  pass  rather  than  been 
brought  to  pass;  for  to  say  it  has  been  brought  to  pass  would  be  to 
ascribe  the  result  entirely  to  human  direction.  But  it  would  never 
have  come  to  pass  unless  it  had  been  in  large  measure  brought  to 
pass.  I  put  this  question  not  in  a  spirit  of  self-congratulation  or  self- 
laudation.  The  future  is  before  us.  It  should  be  a  future  quite  as 
much  beyond  our  present  realization  as  that  realization  is  beyond  the 
expectation  of  the  Founders.  It  can  be  so  if  we  clearly  apprehend  the 
causes  of  our  present  development  and  continue  to  pursue  the  same 
policies  which  have  produced  it.  Nor  is  this  inquiry  solely  of  interest 
to  ourselves.  It  equally  concerns  the  rapidly  increasing  fellowship  of 
art  museums  in  America  so  many  of  which  have  honored  us  today 
by  the  presence  of  their  presidents  and  directors. 

I  will  try  to  enumerate  some  of  the  chief  causes  to  which  I  attribute 
our  present  position. 

First,  I  name  the  breadth  of  our  foundation.  This  we  owe  not 
only  to  our  first  President,  John  Taylor  Johnston,  but  to  those  who 

35 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

were  associated  with  him  at  the  outset,  such  as  George  F.  Comfortj 
William  T,  Blodgett,  Russell  Sturgis,  Jr.,  George  P.  Putnam,  and 
William  C.  Prime.  It  would  have  been  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the 
time  when  our  Museum  was  organized  to  have  fashioned  it  after 
most  European  museums  and  made  it  simply  a  collection  of  paintings 
and  sculpture.  But  the  purpose  of  our  institution  was  far  broader. 
It  was  to  represent  not  only  the  fine  arts  but  all  the  arts — "not  paint- 
ing and  statuary  alone,  but  multiplied  art  such  as  prints,  and  bronzes, 
and  industrial  and  decorative  art  of  all  kinds,"  and  the  application  of 
all  arts  "to  manufactures  and  practical  life."  It  was  not  confined 
to  ancient  art.  Modern  art  was  equally  within  its  scope.  It  was 
not  merely  intended  to  show  beautiful  objects — to  be  "recreative." 
It  was  to  show  them  for  a  practical  purpose — to  be  "educational." 
We  are  carrying  out  this  fundamental  purpose  of  the  Founders  by 
representing  all  the  arts  in  our  collections  and  giving  to  each  propor- 
tionate representation.  This  has  been  possible  only  during  the  last 
fifteen  years,  since  our  resources  have  been  increased.  It  is  illustrated 
by  the  creation  of  our  different  departments  and  the  assembling  of 
our  staff.  It  is  further  illustrated  by  the  allocation  of  our  purchase 
funds  to  different  departments.  We  have  now,  besides  the  Depart- 
ment of  Paintings,  which  has  existed  almost  from  the  start,  the  follow- 
ing departments,  which  are  named  in  the  order  of  their  establishment: 
Classical  Art,  Egyptian  Art,  Decorative  Arts,  Arms  and  Armor,  Far 
Eastern  Art,  Prints.  The  youngest  of  these  departments,  now  only 
three  years  old,  has  already  attained  full  growth,  as  is  illustrated 
by  its  present  exhibition. 

Secondly,  our  Museum  was  popular  in  its  origin.  It  was  the 
project  of  no  single  man.  A  large  group  of  men  of  different  and  vari- 
ous callings  took  part  in  defining  its  purposes  and  laying  its  founda- 
tions. It  was  not  to  be  a  Corcoran  Gallery  or  a  Field  Museum.  Not 
that  I  would  belittle  the  public  spirit  of  a  Corcoran  or  a  Field,  but 
the  form  in  which  their  public  spirit  found  expression  brought  with  it 
some  limitations. 

Because  popular  in  its  origin  it  has  been  popular  in  the  support 
which  it  has  received  from  a  generous  and  public-spirited  public. 
This  is  both  cause  and  effect.  Except  for  such  support  in  the  past 
many  of  its  activities  could  not  have  been  undertaken  or  developed. 
Except  for  such  support  it  would  have  no  purchase  funds  with  which 
systematically  to  increase  its  collections  and  make  them  useful  to  the 

36 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

public.  Except  for  such  support  to  supplement  the  decreasing  city 
appropriation  for  maintenance  it  could  not  sustain  itself  and  throw  its 
collections  open  so  freely  to  the  public.  That  it  has  such  support  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  like  the  profitable  servant  in  the  New  Testament 
parable,  it  has  not  kept  its  talent  in  a  napkin,  and  like  that  profitable 
servant  has  had  more  talents  given  to  it. 

It  is  gratifying  to  us  to  realize  that  our  public  support  comes  not 
only  from  the  citizens  of  our  own  city  but  from  others.  It  is  right 
that  this  should  be  so  if  thereby  we  do  not  diminish  the  resources  of 
art  museums  in  other  American  cities.  For  we  are  serving  not  only 
the  City  of  New  York,  but  all  parts  of  the  country.  We  are  not 
merely  a  New  York  museum,  we  are  in  title  as  well  as  in  fact  a  metro- 
politan museum.  The  largest  gift  the  Museum  ever  received  was 
from  a  citizen  of  New  Jersey,  Jacob  S.  Rogers.  True,  the  two  next 
largest  came  from  our  own  city.  But  of  the  two  next  in  order,  and 
each  amounting  to  more  than  $1,000,000,  one  came  from  Owego, 
New  York,  and  the  other  from  Zanesville,  Ohio. 

Among  the  causes  which  have  contributed  to  the  Museum's 
present  development  I  should  not  omit  the  personality  of  its  Founders 
and  their  successors  or  of  its  staff.  Here  also  cause  and  effect  are 
intermingled.  We  could  not  have  secured  for  the  Museum  trustees 
with  the  qualifications  which  our  Trustees  have  had  without  giving 
them  opportunity  for  effective  service.  We  could  not  have  given 
them  that  opportunity  without  the  defined  purpose  given  to  us  by  our 
Founders  and  the  resources  to  carry  out  that  purpose  given  to  us  by  a 
generous  public.  Nor  could  these  Trustees  carry  out  that  purpose, 
even  with  such  resources,  without  an  able  and  efficient  staff.  The 
Museum  family  as  now  constituted — Director,  staff,  and  Trustees — 
is  and  has  been  for  many  years  a  happy  family,  without  any  of  the 
jars  which  frequently  invade  the  family  relation,  and  all  the  members 
of  that  family  are  working  cordially  together  to  make  our  Museum  a 
faithful  servant  of  the  people. 

Our  Museum,  besides  being  popular  in  its  origin  and  in  its  support, 
has  been  popular  and  democratic  in  its  organization.  From  the  out- 
set it  sought  and  had  close  relation  with  our  city  government,  and 
city  officers  are  ex-officio  members  of  its  Board  of  Trustees.  It  was 
because  of  such  relation  that  we  have  our  site  and  our  building.  It 
is  because  of  such  relation  that  we  have  a  city  contribution  toward 
our  annual  cost  of  maintenance.    I  know  that  some  of  our  Trustees 

37 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

at  times  questioned  the  advisability  of  this  relation.  They  feared 
lest  it  might  lead  to  political  interference.  I  know  that  our  sister- 
museum  in  Boston  without  such  a  relation  has  singularly  prospered. 
But  during  all  of  these  fifty  years  the  fears  of  timid  trustees  have 
proved  groundless.  And  even  if  this  relation  may  involve  some  em- 
barrassment, some  loss,  the  gain,  to  me,  is  far  greater.  By  reason  of 
this  relation  our  Museum  is  essentially  a  people's  museum.  It  is  not  a 
private  gallery  for  the  use  of  our  Trustees  and  members.  It  is  a 
public  gallery  for  the  use  of  all  the  people,  high  and  low,  and  even 
more  for  the  low  than  for  the  high,  for  the  high  can  find  artistic  in- 
spiration in  their  own  homes.     The  low  can  find  it  only  here. 

The  great  crowds  from  east  side,  west  side,  and  every  side — men, 
women,  and  children — which  throng  our  galleries  every  Saturday  and 
Sunday,  which  stand  in  silent  rapture  when  music  combines  with  its 
sister  arts  to  voice  a  harmony  more  perfect  than  music  can  produce 
alone,  feel  and  have  a  right  to  feel  that  it  is  their  museum  and  can 
add  the  joy  of  possession  to  their  other  delights. 

Do  not  understand  me  as  advocating  complete  public  control,  be 
it  municipal  or  state,  of  any  American  art  museum.  It  is  the  com- 
bination of  public  and  private  control  which  we  have  in  the  Metro- 
politan that  seems  to  me  so  desirable.  That  is,  a  board  of  trustees, 
elected  by  the  corporation  for  terms  of  office  sufficiently  long  to 
ensure  continuous  policies,  and  ex-officio  trustees  in  the  persons  of 
particular  city  officers  to  hold  office  for  the  term  of  their  election  by 
the  people.  The  present  lease  by  the  City  under  which  the  Museum 
occupies  its  buildings,  coupled  with  the  presence  on  our  Board  of  city 
officers,  seems  to  me  to  make  this  partnership,  as  it  may  be  called, 
between  the  City  and  the  Museum  quite  perfect. 

Chief,  however,  among  all  the  causes  which  have  given  the  Mu- 
seum, in  my  opinion,  its  present  position,  is  what  I  may  call,  for 
lack  of  a  better  term,  the  active  part  it  is  taking  in  community  life. 
In  a  sense  it  is  its  direct  contribution  to  education.  In  another  sense 
it  is  its  direct  contribution  to  recreation.  It  is  evidenced  on  the  edu- 
cational side  by  our  close  relation  to  the  teachers  and  children  of  our 
schools,  public  and  private,  by  our  Museum  instructors  who  give  ex- 
pert guidance,  by  the  hospitality  of  our  class  rooms,  by  our  many 
lecture  courses  for  artisans  as  well  as  art  students,  by  the  labeling 
of  our  collections,  by  their  illustration  with  photographs  and  plans, 
and  by  our  catalogues  and  handbooks.     It  is  evidenced  on  the  side 

38 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

of  recreation  by  our  story-telling  hours  for  children  and  by  our  free 
concerts. 

Americanism  is  a  popular  term  just  now,  though  of  somewhat 
undefined  application,  but  what  can  make  more  for  Americanism  in  its 
true  sense,  and  for  what  is  more  than  Americanism,  for  good  citizen- 
ship and  neigh borliness,  than  our  free  concerts,  the  latest  of  which  was 
attended  by  more  than  10,000  people,  and  than  the  crowds  of  children 
who  come  to  our  Museum  every  Sunday  afternoon  to  listen  to  the 
story  telling  and  who  frequently  fill  our  lecture  hall  twice  over? 

Such  activities  demonstrate  to  the  people  of  our  city  that  our 
Museum  is  a  real,  living,  human  organism,  with  heart  as  well  as  mind; 
that  it  is  ready  not  only  to  open  its  doors  to  invited  guests,  but  go 
out  "into  the  by-ways  and  hedges"  and  to  bid  all  to  come  in  and  that 
all  who  do  come  in  will  be  equally  welcomed.  For  there  are  no  privi- 
leged classes  in  our  Museum  unless  it  be  the  children,  and  they  are 
not  a  class.  We  are  not  content  simply  to  show  dead  things,  however 
beautiful  they  are  and  however  much  inspiration  may  come  from 
their  dead  beauty.  We  seek  to  make  everything  in  our  Museum 
alive  and  to  enter  as  a  living  force  into  all  the  interests  of  our  com- 
munity. This  is  our  contribution  toward  making  art  free  for  de- 
mocracy. 

In  such  policies  we  enter  a  field  quite  unknown  to  the  European 
art  museums.  Our  policy  exemplifies  what  may  be  called  the  Amer- 
ican museum  idea,  which  is  practised  by  many  of  our  fellow  American 
museums. 

And  what  should  be  the  policies  of  the  Museum  in  the  future,  so 
that  our  successors,  when  they  come  fifty  years  hence  to  celebrate 
its  hundredth  anniversary,  may  do  so  with  the  same  satisfaction  with 
which  we  celebrate  its  fiftieth?  Strict  adherence,  in  my  judgment, 
to  the  policies  of  the  past,  with  possibly  some  difference  of  emphasis 
and  an  open-minded  readiness  to  meet  the  changes  of  public  senti- 
ment in  the  future  just  as  the  Trustees  of  the  past  generation  met  the 
changing  sentiment  of  later  times.  For  instance,  Sunday  opening  of 
the  Museum  would  have  shocked  the  Founders  and  seemed  to  most 
of  them  sinful.  Some  of  them,  could  they  have  foreseen  it,  would 
have  refused  to  take  any  part  in  the  enterprise.  But  many  of  these 
same  Founders  joined  with  Trustees  of  a  newer  generation  in  forming 
the  majority  which  in  1891  decreed  Sunday  opening. 

Our  Museum  should  continue  its  original  policy  of  recognizing 

29 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

all  the  arts  and  giving  no  undue  preponderance  to  any.  It  should 
be  educational  quite  as  much  as  recreative  and  recreative  quite  as 
much  as  educational.  I  look  to  greater  emphasis  being  laid  on 
modern  art.  The  art  of  past  centuries  which  has  stood  the  test  of 
time  and  created  standards  to  which  we  must  ever  look  for  guidance 
must  always  be  the  fundamental  basis  of  any  art  museum,  but  mod- 
ern art  should  not  be  excluded.  We  are  interested  quite  as  much,  if 
not  more,  in  what  the  art  world  is  doing  now  as  we  are  in  what  it 
has  done  in  the  past.  Modern  art  in  painting  and  sculpture  is  well 
represented  in  our  Museum.  The  other  forms  of  modern  art  are 
still  to  be  adequately  represented. 

Our  Museum  has  been  accused  of  neglecting  our  own  national 
American  art.  There  was  a  time  not  long  since  when  I  think  this 
accusation  was  justified.  It  is  certainly  not  justified  now.  Four  of 
our  galleries  are  now  given  up  entirely  to  American  painting.  Fif- 
teen years  ago  (1904)  we  had  only  147  American  pictures,  represent- 
ing 83  American  painters,  and  48  pieces  of  American  sculpture,  repre- 
senting 26  American  sculptors.  Today  we  have  503  paintings,  rep- 
resenting 214  American  painters,  and  186  pieces  of  sculpture,  repre- 
senting 91  American  sculptors.  We  have  in  these  later  years  ac- 
quired a  very  complete  collection  of  American  decorative  art,  original 
rooms  and  their  furnishings,  but  we  have  so  far  been  able  to  exhibit 
only  a  small  part  of  these  collections  and  even  that  part  inadequately. 
I  confidently  look  forward  to  greater  emphasis  being  placed  on  Amer- 
ican art  and  it  would  not  be  at  all  surprising  if  our  next  develop- 
ment in  the  line  of  departmental  organization  would  be  a  Department 
of  American  Decorative  Art. 

Our  Museum  has  recently  experimented  in  the  line  of  what  may 
be  called  museum  extension.  We  have  many  paintings,  gladly  wel- 
comed in  the  earlier  years,  which  can  no  longer  find  place  on  our 
walls.  We  have  many  other  objects  of  art  of  which  the  same  is 
true.  Except  for  lack  of  space  we  would  gladly  exhibit  much  of 
this  museum  material.  With  present  limitations  of  space  we  cannot. 
Instead  of  leaving  it  in  our  storerooms  we  have  set  it  to  work  outside. 
We  have  a  loan  exhibit  of  pictures  now  circulating  in  the  branch  public 
libraries.  We  have  another  in  the  Bronx.  We  have  several  exhibits 
touring  the  country  under  the  management  of  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Arts.  A  Metropolitan  Museum  collection  of  pictures  which 
the  Founders  would  have  eagerly  welcomed  for  their  first  exhibition 

40 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

is  now  on  the  road  and  has  this  winter  visited  eight  cities  as  follows: 
Youngstown,  Ohio;  Charlottesville  and  Richmond,  Virginia;  Fort 
Worth  and  Galveston,  Texas;  Savannah,  Georgia;  Charleston,  South 
Carolina;  and  Lima,  Ohio.  We  are  lending  textiles  and  other  exhibits 
to  the  City  high  schools.  This  is  museum  extension.  We  have 
definitely  adopted  this  policy.  It  should  be  as  useful  as  university 
extension.  There  is  no  limit  to  the  degree  to  which  it  can  be  carried 
out  except  that  of  resources. 

And  what  is  our  forecast  of  the  future.^  How  will  it  be  with  the 
Museum  fifty  years  hence?  Our  ship  has  been  well  designed  and  well 
built.  It  lingered,  to  be  sure,  at  the  launching,  but  in  the  retrospect 
the  voyage  so  far  has  been  exceedingly  prosperous.  There  have  been 
storms,  but  it  has  outridden  them.  There  have  been  reefs,  but  it 
has  avoided  them.  In  later  years  it  has  sailed  on  with  the  favoring 
winds  and  favoring  tides  of  country-wide  growth  and  prosperity. 
The  ship,  as  it  sails  along,  will  be  no  less  staunch.  The  crew  will  be 
no  less  able  and  faithful.     But  winds  and  tides  we  cannot  control. 

Looking  ahead,  I  see  but  one  storm  signal.  Can  and  will  our 
city  continue  to  perform  its  part  of  our  partnership  relation?  Our 
new  south  wing,  begun  by  the  City  six  years  ago,  has  never  been  com- 
pleted. Work  on  it  has  been  at  a  standstill  since  1917.  There  is  no 
city  appropriation  to  continue  it.  Ten  years  ago  (1909)  the  City 
contributed  68  per  cent,  of  our  cost  of  maintenance.  Five  years 
ago  (1914)  this  was  43  per  cent.  Last  year  (1919)  it  was  only  28 
per  cent.  Meanwhile  the  cost  of  our  service  to  the  public  has  been 
constantly  increasing.  Last  year  our  administrative  expenses  were 
$617,214.05,  to  which  the  City  contributed  $175,00x3.  After  using 
for  these  expenses  all  our  income  applicable  to  administration  and 
supplementing  it  by  all  the  income  which  we  could  lawfully  divert 
from  other  purposes  to  that  of  administration,  there  remained  a  defi- 
cit of  $45,503.47.  This  year,  I  am  glad  to  say,  the  city  contribu- 
tion has  been  increased  to  $300,000.     But  there  will  still  be  a  deficit. 

Our  future  development,  the  extent  of  our  future  service  to  the 
people  of  New  York,  depends  upon  the  degree  to  which  the  City  will 
provide  buildings  and  contribute  toward  the  cost  of  operation. 

In  Europe  Government  supplies  to  art  museums  not  only  all  the 
buildings,  but  all  the  cost  of  operation  and  almost  all  the  purchase 
funds.  In  New  York  Government  is  now  supplying  less  than  half 
the  cost  of  operation  and  none  of  the  purchase  funds. 

41 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

We  have  invited  our  fellow  art  museums  to  join  with  us  in  this 
celebration,  not  so  much  with  the  thought  of  receiving  their  congratu- 
lations as  of  giving  them  ours.  True,  it  is  our  fiftieth  birthday.  But 
it  is  fifty  years  of  progress  in  the  growth  of  art  museums  in  America 
that  we  really  celebrate  today.  For  the  art  museum  impulse  was 
national  in  extent  and  has  gathered  momentum  as  the  years  have 
passed  by. 

The  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  was  founded  in  1870  and  is 
practically  of  our  own  age.  The  Chicago  Art  Institute  dates  from 
1 879  and  is  only  a  few  years  younger.  The  St.  Louis  Museum  was 
organized  in  the  same  year  as  Chicago.  The  Pennsylvania  Museum 
preceded  it  in  1876.  Cincinnati  and  Brooklyn  date  from  the  8o's, 
Pittsburgh  and  Worcester  from  the  90's,  Toledo,  Indianapolis,  Detroit, 
Minneapolis,  and  Cleveland  from  the  present  century.  I  am  not  nam- 
ing all  the  art  museums  in  the  country.  They  number,  according  to  my 
latest  statistics  (of  ten  years  ago),  92,  not  counting  the  museum  in- 
cluded in  Mr.  Rea's  catalogue  of  American  museums  whose  art  collec- 
tion is  described  as  "one  case  of  chinaware."  Many  are  parts  of  other 
institutions — universities,  schools,  and  libraries,  like  the  Fogg  Art 
Museum  at  Harvard  and  the  Art  School  of  Yale.  But  I  have  named 
the  principal  ones  which  are  independent  in  organization,  public  in 
character,  educational  in  purpose,  aggressive  in  policy,  and  which 
like  ours  are  not  content  to  be  mere  depositories  of  objects  of  art 
but  aspire  to  be  community  art  centers.  It  is  a  large  and  increasing 
family.  Every  year  will,  I  trust,  add  to  its  number.  Some  of  its 
members  have  grown,  in  proportion  to  the  population  of  the  cities  in 
which  they  are  located,  even  faster  than  we  have.  Some  of  them  have 
pursued  an  open-door,  community  policy  even  further  than  we  have. 
We  are  glad  to  profit  by  their  experience.  We  are  glad  to  share  with 
them  ours.  They  give  inspiration  to  us.  We  hope  to  give  some 
inspiration  to  them.  We  have  no  feeling  of  jealousy  toward  them  or 
rivalry  with  them,  for  our  American  public  art  museums  form  one 
sympathetic  family,  every  member  of  which  rejoices  in  the  success  and 
prosperity  of  the  others.    To  all  we  give  a  hearty  birthday  greeting. 


42 


ADDRESS  BY  ELIHU  ROOT 

It  has  seemed  fitting  to  the  Trustees  of  the  Museum  that  upon  this 
celebration  of  the  close  of  the  first  half-century  of  the  Museum's 
existence,  the  names  of  the  Founders  and  the  Benefactors  during  that 
critical  period  should  be  inscribed  in  permanent  form  and  in  conspicu- 
ous place  amid  the  works  that  have  lived  after  them. 

On  the  23rd  of  November,  1869,  there  was  a  meeting  of  a  little 
group  of  men  in  the  hall  of  the  Union  League  Club  in  this  city  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  a  proposal  to  establish  a  museum  of  art  in  the 
City  of  New  York.  They  appointed  committees.  They  agreed  upon 
a  constitution.  They  applied  to  the  Legislature  and  received  a  char- 
ter granted  in  April,  1870— fifty  years  ago  last  month.  The  condi- 
tions under  which  they  met  and  acted  it  is  very  difficult  for  us  to 
realize  now.  It  is  difficult  even  for  those  of  us  who  can  remember 
them.  We  were  just  approaching  the  close  of  that  dreadful  period  of 
taste  which  extended  from  the  presidency  of  Jackson  to  the  presi- 
dency of  Grant — that  dreadful  period  which  found  its  consummate 
flower  among  the  French  in  the  meretricious  adornment  of  the  Second 
Empire,  and  which  has  associated  the  idea  of  goodness  with  the  idea 
of  ugliness  in  the  term  "Victorian  Period."  The  newly  awakening 
desire  of  the  American  people  for  art  was  finding  expression  in  sawed- 
scroll-work  and  basswood-towers.  The  women  of  America,  with  all 
the  innate  and  natural  taste  of  womanhood,  were  pressing  autumn 
leaves  and  doing  crude  worsted  work  as  an  expression  of  art.  The 
reign  of  Mullet  was  just  before  us — the  reign  of  that  incredible 
architecture  which  has  given  to  us  the  New  York  Post  Office,  and  in 
Washington  the  State,  War,  and  Navy  Building  with  its  job-lot  of 
granite  columns  opposite  the  beautiful  relic  of  colonial  days  in  the 
White  House.  Long  rows  of  brownstone,  high-stooped  houses  ex- 
pressed the  idea  of  New  Yorkers  in  regard  to  living.  In  the  homes 
of  the  American  people  who  had  about  them  all  the  beauties  of  nature 

43 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

Prang  chromos  expressed  their  ideas  of  art.  More  than  twenty  years 
were  yet  to  come  before  that  wonderful  white  city  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan  was  to  strike  the  imagination  of  the  American  people  with 
a  new  idea  that  the  beautiful  was  better  than  the  sqixalid. 

The  giving  habit  had  not  been  cultivated — hardly  created  in  New 
York.  Fortunes  were  small.  There  were  many  faint  hearts  in  the 
group  that  gathered  in  the  Union  League  Club.  There  was  so  little 
art  for  the  public  that  it  was  not  understood,  and  there  was  so  little 
public  for  art  that  it  was  hardly  manifest.  There  were  no  consid- 
erable museums.  There  were  some  praiseworthy  private  attempts 
on  a  small  scale,  but  not  here.  There  were  no  sources  from  which  to 
draw.  Our  conception  of  art  was  of  something  far  away  in  the  old 
world.  The  men  who  gathered  in  that  meeting  and  resolved  to  estab- 
lish an  art  museum,  played  the  role  of  Columbus.  And  what  they 
did  compared  with  what  we  are  doing  has  the  same  relation  that  the 
courage  and  faith  of  Columbus  bore  to  the  ordinary  matter-of-course 
voyage  of  the  master  of  an  ocean  steamer  on  the  Atlantic  today. 

But  the  development  of  this  free,  intelligent,  individually  inde- 
pendent people  had  been  passing  through  the  stage  I  have  attempted 
to  describe,  and  had  come  to  the  beginning  of  a  new  era,  and  like  the 
faint  breath  of  the  breeze  before  the  dawn  something  touched  the 
spirit  of  the  men  who  gathered  at  the  call  of  enthusiasts  to  con- 
sider the  project  of  establishing  a  museum  in  New  York.  It  was  felt 
not  here  alone,  but  in  Boston  and  faintly  stirring  in  favored  places 
throughout  the  land.  The  men  who  gathered  included  artists  and 
authors  and  lawyers  and  clergymen  and  men  of  affairs.  There  were 
Hunt,  Ward,  Johnson,  Kensett,  and  Olmsted,  whose  art  is  living  now. 
There  were  Bryant  and  Curtis.  There  were  Bellows  and  Thompson, 
Choate  and  Barlow.  And  there  were  John  Taylor  Johnston  and 
Dix,  Aspinwall,  Blodgett,  Putnam,  and  Marquand,  and  other  names 
of  the  great  business  men  of  New  York,  to  whom  at  that  time,  as  a 
youth,  I  looked  up  as  to  the  gods  upon  Olympus.  They  belonged 
to  that  great  class  of  nation  builders — men  whose  strength  of  char- 
acter and  ability  and  power,  through  the  process  of  natural  selection, 
made  them  the  leaders  in  the  march  of  the  American  people  toward  the 
amazing  development  of  our  country  in  the  last  half-century.  And 
like  all  men  of  distinguished  success  in  business  as  well  as  in  literature 
and  in  art,  they  had  the  quality  of  imagination.  Inspired  by  the 
artists  and  authors  who  joined  with  them,  they  overbore  the  doubting 

44 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

and  vacillating — the  men  of  little  faith — and  determined  to  accom- 
plish the  apparently  almost  hopeless  task.  There  was  one  man  whose 
inspiration  was  the  most  valuable  of  all,  and  whose  name  should  not 
be  omitted  here — George  F.  Comfort  of  Princeton  University,  who 
was  not  only  an  enthusiast  in  art,  but  a  reformer  with  the  instincts  of 
reform,  with  the  enthusiasm  of  propaganda,  and  devoted  to  sharing  his 
love  of  art  and  his  joy  in  it  among  all  the  people  of  this  country. 
His  knowledge  and  direction  and  inspiration  played  a  great  part  in 
making  the  effort  a  success. 

Under  that  kind  of  influence,  and  with  that  character,  the  men 
who  undertook  to  begin  the  establishment  of  the  Museum,  formed  a 
sound  conception  of  what  it  was  they  were  undertaking.  They  knew 
that  their  task  was  something  more  than  the  establishment  of  a  de- 
pository for  works  of  art.  They  understood  that  the  cultivation  of 
taste  is  one  of  the  mightiest  agencies  in  the  eternal  conflict,  the  strug- 
gle for  happiness  against  the  discontent  and  the  tedium  of  life.  They 
knew  that  when  for  rich  and  poor  alike  food  and  drink  and  clothing 
and  shelter  have  been  supplied,  there  still  comes  the  question  of 
happiness.  They  knew  that  then  Satan  enters  into  the  empty  cham- 
bers of  the  soul  that  has  no  spiritual  interest  in  life.  They  knew  what 
we  see  today,  that  the  great  problem  for  the  laboring  people  of 
America,  with  their  higher  wages  and  their  shorter  hours,  is  what  to 
do  with  their  higher  wages  and  their  leisure  hours.  They  knew  that 
no  wealth  and  no  material  things  can  fill  the  void  in  human  nature. 
And  with  that  deep  knowledge  they  proceeded  with  a  breadth  of 
view  worthy  of  all  honor.  They  determined  to  establish  an  institution 
which  should  be  not  to  gratify  curiosity,  but  to  educate  taste,  which 
should  be  not  for  amusement  but  an  essential  means  of  high  culti- 
vation. And  they  declared  that  they  were  determined  to  establish  an 
institution  which  should  gather  for  the  education  of  all  the  people 
the  human  documents  of  art  in  all  its  phases  and  in  all  its  possibilities 
— painting  and  sculpture,  the  graphic  arts,  handiwork,  textiles  and 
metals,  music,  the  arts  of  East  and  West,  of  the  present  and  the  past 
— all  were  to  be  made  to  contribute  toward  the  cultivation  of  that 
taste  which  makes  for  human  happiness.  And  the  institution  which 
they  founded  upon  that  broad  basis  has  stood  the  test  of  common 
judgment.  It  has  been  accepted  as  not  a  foible  of  the  rich,  but  a 
benefit  for  the  whole  community.  It  has  justified  and  brought  about 
the  support  of  government  in  the  City  and  State,  and  it  has  com- 

45 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

mended  itself  to  a  long  line  of  spiritual  successors  of  the  men  who 
founded  it — of  successors  inspired  by  the  same  high  purpose,  capable 
of  the  same  faith,  and  instinct  with  the  same  spirit  of  service.  John 
Taylor  Johnston,  Founder  and  Benefactor;  William  T.  Blodgett,  who 
without  authority  made  the  purchase  of  174  paintings  in  Europe  and 
borrowed  the  money  to  pay  for  them,  so  that  the  Museum  had  to 
go  on;  Marquand  and  Rhinelander  and  that  greatest  of  art  collectors, 
Pierpont  Morgan,  and  many  others  whose  names  you  will  presently 
see  graven  in  marble,  have  carried  on  the  purpose,  have  kept  the  faith, 
and  have  brought  fruition  to  the  hopes  of  the  little  group  of  men  who 
founded  the  institution  fifty  years  ago  in  the  Union  League  Club. 
It  is  impossible  for  me  here,  upon  this  occasion  which  permits  but 
brief  remarks,  to  do  justice  to  the  devotion  and  lofty  spirit  and  enthu- 
siasm of  such  men  as  Mr.  Johnston  and  Mr.  Marquand  and  Mr. 
Rhinelander  and  Mr.  Morgan  and  Mr.  de  Forest.  The  nobility  of 
the  work  has  found  in  them  fitting  association,  and  I  doubt  not  that 
they  have  received  in  full  measure  from  that  work  a  reward  for  the 
noble  service  they  have  rendered.  It  is  especially  grateful  to  me,  and 
I  know  it  must  be  to  all  of  you,  that  while  the  first  name  on  the  list 
of  the  Founders  and  the  first  name  on  the  list  of  the  Benefactors  is 
that  great  citizen  of  New  York,  John  Taylor  Johnston,  the  last  names 
on  the  list  of  Benefactors  are  his  daughter,  Emily  Johnston  de  Forest, 
and  his  son-in-law,  Robert  de  Forest.  In  the  character  of  the  found- 
ers, in  the  universal  public  approval  of  their  work,  in  the  knowledge 
that  they  have  swung  open  the  doors  of  vision  to  the  school  and  the 
factory,  the  children  and  the  teachers,  the  artisans,  the  laborers,  the 
millions  who  are  wearied  by  the  dull  and  squalid  sights  of  a  great  city, 
in  the  succession  of  noble  men  who  have  kept  alive  the  work  they  be- 
gan, we  find  an  augury  inevitable  for  the  future  of  the  institution. 
The  spirit  of  great  and  noble  citizenship  lives  still  in  America.  The 
instinct  of  service,  the  habit  of  benevolence,  the  urge  of  patriotism, 
the  love  of  beauty,  the  devotion  to  humanity  live  still  in  America. 
And  so  long  as  our  free  republic  retains  its  freedom  this  institution 
and  all  the  ranks  of  other  institutions  which  have  come  along  in  the 
same  cause  and  are  inspired  by  the  same  spirit  will  live  and  increase 
and  be  a  blessing  to  mankind. 

The  tablet  of  the  Founders.  The  tablet  of  the  Benefactors. 
Surely  of  no  man  could  it  more  appropriately  be  said  than  of  these, 
the  trite  old  Latin  saying,  "Si  monumentum  requiris,  circumspice." 

46 


A  BRIEF  REVIEW  OF  FIFTY  YEARS'  DEVELOPMENT 

1866  Suggestion  of  John  Jay  in  Paris  that  'it  was  time  for  the  Amer- 
ican people  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  National  Institution  and 
Gallery  of  Art  and  that  the  American  gentlemen  then  in  Europe 
were  the  men  to  inaugurate  the  plan.' 

1869  Memorial  from  American  citizens  in  Paris  to  Union  League  Club 

urging  establishment  of  permanent  gallery  of  art  in  New  York 
referred  to  Art  Committee  in  February,  Report  of  Committee 
adopted  October  14  and  public  meeting  planned.  Meeting 
held  in  Theatre  of  Union  League  Club,  November  23  and  Pro- 
visional Committee  of  Fifty  appointed. 

1870  Officers,  Trustees,  and  Executive  Committee  elected,  Janu- 

ary 31. 

First  President,  John  Taylor  Johnston. 

The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  incorporated  by  the  State 
of  New  York,  April  13,  "for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and 
maintaining  a  museum  and  library  of  art,  of  encouraging  and 
developing  the  study  of  the  fine  arts,  and  the  application  of 
arts  to  manufacture  and  practical  life,  of  advancing  the 
knowledge  of  kindred  subjects,  and  to  that  end,  of  furnishing 
popular  instruction  and  recreation." 

Permanent  Constitution  adopted  at  first  annual  meeting. 
May  24. 

Resolution  adopted  to  raise  ^250,000  by  public  subscription  to 
establish  Museum. 

First  gift,  Roman  sarcophagus  from  Tarsus,  from  Abdo  Debbas. 

1 87 1  First  purchase  through  William  T.  Blodgett  and  John  Taylor 

Johnston,  174  paintings  of  various  schools. 
Only  |io6,ooo  reported  to  be  subscribed  out  of  the  total  of 
^250,000  desired,  March  3. 

47 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

Act  authorizing  erection  and  maintenance  "upon  that  portion 
of  Central  Park  formerly  known  as  Manhattan  Square,  or 
any  other  park,  square  or  place"  of  a  suitable  building  for 
the  Museum. 

First  annual  report  issued. 

Sums  pledged,  with  amounts  subscribed,  exceeded  required 
^250,000,  May  3. 

First  temporary  quarters  leased,  Dodworth  Building,  681  Fifth 
Avenue,  annual  rental  |9,ooo. 

1872  First    exhibition,    consisting   of   the    Museum's    collection    of 

paintings  and  other  objects  of  art  lent  for  the  occasion,  opened 
February  20. 

"We  have  now  something  to  point  to  as  the  Museum,  some- 
thing tangible  and  something  good."       John  Taylor  Johnston. 

Students  given  copyists'  privilege. 

First  lectures  given:  Hiram  Hitchcock  on  General  di  Cesnola's 
discoveries  in  Cyprus,  Russell  Sturgis,  Jr.,  on  Ceramic  Art. 

Permanent  location  of  museum  building,  Seventy-ninth  Street 
to  Eighty-fourth  Street,  Central  Park,  ratified  by  Trustees  on 
the  site  designated  for  such  a  purpose  on  plan  of  Central  Park, 
in  Report  of  Park  Commissioners,  1869. 

1873  Second  temporary  quarters  leased,  the  Douglas  Mansion,  128 

West  Fourteenth  Street,  annual  rental,  $8,000. 

Cesnola  Collection  of  Cypriote  antiquities  exhibited. 

Original  fund  of  $250,000  raised  by  subscription  exhausted. 

Act  enabling  Park  Department  to  apply  annually  to  mainte- 
nance of  Museum  a  sum  not  exceeding  $15,000. 

Admission  fee  charged,  except  on  Monday. 

First  catalogue  of  a  loan  exhibition  of  paintings. 

1874  Cesnola  collection  of  Cypriote  antiquities  bought. 
First  Secretary,  William  J.  Hoppin,  elected. 

1875  Free   days,    Monday   and   Thursday,   established.     (Average 

attendance  577.) 
First  guide  to  collections  issued. 
Privileges  to  students  granted. 

1876  Annual  membership  class  formed.     600  enrolled. 
Centennial  loan  exhibition,  in  cooperation  with  National  Acad- 
emy of  Design. 

48 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

1877  Second  Secretary,  General  L.  P.  di  Cesnola,  elected. 

1878  Act  enabling  City  to  appropriate  $30,000  for  moving  collections 

and  fitting  up  building  in  Central  Park. 
Relations  between  City  and  Museum  established  by  lease. 

1879  Last  reception  in  Douglas  Mansion. 

First  Director,  General  L.  P.  di  Cesnola,  elected. 
Removal  to  Central  Park. 

1880  First  Museum  Building  in  Park  opened,  Calvert  Vaux  and  J. 

W.  Mould,  Architects. 
Industrial  Art  School  established  through  gift  of  Gideon  F.  T. 

Reed. 
Library  organized.     $500  appropriated. 

1881  First  bequest,  Stephen  Whitney  Phoenix  collection  of  objects  of 

art. 

1883  First  bequest  of  money,  about  $100,000,  Levi  Hale  Willard, 

for  purchase  of  architectural  casts. 

1884  Loan  exhibition,  paintings  by  George  Frederick  Watts. 

1886  Department  of  Paintings  organized- 
Department  of  Sculpture  organized. 

William  H.  Vanderbilt  bequest,  nucleus  of  General  Endowment 

Fund. 
First  purchase  of  Egyptian  art. 

1887  Catharine  Lorillard  Wolfe  bequest,  modern  paintings  and  fund 

for  maintenance. 

1888  First  addition   to   building   (Addition   B),  Theodore  Weston, 

Architect. 
Henry  G.  Marquand  gives  paintings  by  Old  Masters. 

1889  Mrs.  John  Crosby  Brown  gives  collection  of  musical  instru- 

ments. 
John  Taylor  Johnston  elected  Honorary  President. 
Second  President,  Henry  G.  Marquand,  elected. 
Department  of  Casts  created. 

1890  John  Jacob  Astor  bequest. 

49 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

1 891  Sunday  opening  inaugurated. 

Appointment  of  Special  Committee  to  form  collection  of  casts 
of  sculpture,  on  initiative  of  Robert  W.  de  Forest.  Over 
$78,cx)0  obtained.  Increased  later  by  George  W.  Cullum 
bequest  and  John  Taylor  Johnston  memorial  fund. 

Edward  C.  Moore  bequest  of  objects  of  art. 

189a  Act  authorizing  yearly  appropriation  by  City;  ^70,000  received. 
Mrs.  Amelia  B.  Lazarus  gives  Jacob  H.  Lazarus  Traveling 
Scholarship. 

1893  Mrs.  Elizabeth  U.  Coles  bequest,  tapestries  and  other  objects 

of  art,  and  fund. 
Restaurant  opened. 

1894  Second  addition  to  building  (Addition  C),  Arthur  L.  Tucker- 

man,  Architect. 

1895  Loan  exhibition  of  early  American  paintings. 

1901  Jacob  S.  Rogers  bequest,  for  the  purchase  of  objects  of  art 

and  books,  over  $5,cxx),ooo. 

1902  Third  addition  to  building  (Addition  D),  main  Fifth  Avenue 

entrance,  Richard  Morris  Hunt,  Architect. 
George  W.  Vanderbilt  lends  collection  of  paintings. 
Second  President,  Henry  G.  Marquand,  died. 
Third  President,  Frederick  W.  Rhinelander,  elected. 
Heber  R.  Bishop  gives  collection  of  jade. 

1903  Boscoreale  frescoes  and  Etruscan   bronze   biga,  6th  century 

B.C.,  bought. 

1904  Death  of  General  L.  P.  di  Cesnola. 

Third  President,  Frederick  W.  Rhinelander,  died. 
Fourth  President,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  elected. 
Third  Secretary,  Robert  W.  de  Forest,  elected. 

1905  Second  Director,  Sir  C.  Purdon  Clarke,  elected. 
Edward  Robinson  elected  Assistant  Director. 
Membership  classes,  Sustaining  and  Fellowship,  established. 

■    50 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

Departments  re-organized,  Department  of  Classical  Antiquities 

organized. 
Educational  work  organized;  cooperation  with  Public  Schools 

initiated. 
Publication  of  Bulletin  begun. 

1906  Accessions  Room  opened. 
Photograph  Department  established. 
Information  Desk  established. 
Department  of  Egyptian  Art  organized. 
Egyptian  Expedition  for  excavation  organized. 

George  A.  Hearn  gives  English  and  American  paintings  and 
fund  for  purchase  of  paintings  by  living  American  artists. 

1907  Department  of  Decorative  Arts  organized. 
Class  Room  opened. 

Lantern  slide  lending  collection  begun. 

Fourth  addition  to  building  (Addition  E),  McKim,  Mead  & 
White,  Architects. 

1908  First  Museum  Instructor  appointed. 
Frederick  C.  Hewitt  bequest,  over  ^1,500,000, 

1909  Loan  exhibition,  Hudson-Fulton  celebration. 
First  Study  Room,  of  Textiles,  opened. 

1 9 10  Fifth  addition  to  building  (Addition  F),  Wing  of  Decorative 

Arts,  McKim,  Mead  &  White,  Architects. 

J.  Pierpont  Morgan  gives  part  and  lends  part  of  Hoentschel 
Collection. 

Mrs.  Russell  Sage  gives  Bolles  Collection  of  American  furni- 
ture. 

Sixth  addition  to  building  (Addition  G),  The  Library,  McKim, 
Mead  &  White,  Architects. 

Sir  C.  Purdon  Clarke,  Director,  resigns. 

Third  Director,  Edward  Robinson,  elected. 

George  A.  Hearn  gives  another  collection  of  English  and  Amer- 
ican paintings. 

John  Stewart  Kennedy  bequest,  over  ^2,600,000. 

1 9 1 1  Lecture  Hall  opened. 

51 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 

191 2  Francis  L.  Leland  gift,  over  $1,000,000. 

Seventh  addition  to  the  building  (Addition  H),  McKim,  Mead 
&  White,  Architects. 
Joseph  Pulitzer  bequest,  over  $900,000. 
Department  of  Arms  and  Armor  organized. 

1913  Death  of  J.  Pierpont  Morgan. 

Fifth  President,  Robert  W.  de  Forest,  elected. 
Fourth  Secretary,  Henry  W.  Kent,  elected. 
Benjamin  Altman  bequest,  paintings,  sculpture,  Chinese  porce- 
lains, etc.,  and  fund. 

William  Henry  Riggs  gives  collection  of  arms  and  armor. 
History  of  the  Museum  published. 

1914  Loan  exhibition,  the  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  Collection. 

Mrs.  Edward  J.  Tytus  gives  fund  for  publication  of  Museum 

Egyptian  Expedition  work. 
John   L.   Cadwalader   bequest,   English   furniture,   porcelains, 

and  fund. 

1915  Department  of  Far  Eastern  Art  organized. 

Mrs.  Morris  K.  Jesup  bequest,  paintings  and  funds. 
Mrs.  Robert  W.  Gillespie  bequest  of  tapestries. 

1916  Edward  S.  Harkness  gives  Tomb  of  Perneb. 

J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  Jr.,  gives  Colonna  Raphael  and  sculpture 
•     from  the  Chateau  de  Biron. 

1917  Department  of  Prints  organized. 

Harris  B.  Dick  bequest,  collections  and  fund,  over  $1,000,000. 

First  manufacturers'  exhibition. 

Isaac  D.  Fletcher  bequest,  collection  of  paintings  and  objects 

of  art,  and  fund,  over  $3,400,000. 
Eighth  addition   to  building   (Addition  J  occupied.  Addition 

K  not  yet  completed),  McKim,  Mead  &  White,  Architects. 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  Jr.,  gives  collection  of  objects  of  art. 

191 8  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  Collection  of  objects  of  art  installed  in 

Wing  of  Decorative  Arts,  hereafter  to  be  called  the  Pierpont 

Morgan  Wing. 
John  Hoge  bequest,  over  $1,000,000. 
Loan  exhibition,  contemporary  American  sculpture. 

5^ 


THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION 

Free  concerts  inaugurated. 
i  Associate  in  Industrial  Arts  appointed. 

1919  Cooperative  Exhibition  of  Plant  Forms  in  Ornament  by  Mu- 
^  seum  and  New  York  Botanical  Garden. 

Tablet  commemorative  of  men  who  served  in  the  war  unveiled. 


53 


OF  THIS  BOOK 

FOUR  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-FIVE 

COPIES    HAVE   BEEN    PRINTED 

ON  MACHINE-MADE  PAPER 

AND    THIRTY-FIVE    ON 

HAND-MADE  PAPER 

MARCH    1 92 1 


i 


T/^ 


